A Level Media - Sephora “Black Beauty Is Beauty” advert - Media Language and Representation
Summary
TLDRThe Sephora 'Black Beauty is Beauty' advert is a powerful media campaign focusing on representation and inclusivity. It celebrates black history's contributions to beauty trends and products, highlighting inventions like the hairbrush by Lydia Newman. The video challenges stereotypes, showcasing a diverse cast and positive images to counter negative media portrayals. It also addresses the lack of black-owned beauty brands and experiences of discrimination in stores. Directed by Garrett Bradley, the advert promotes a message of unity and equality, positioning Sephora as a leader in the fight for diversity in the beauty industry.
Takeaways
- 🎥 The video is an educational guide focusing on media language and representation, particularly relevant for A-Level media studies students.
- 🖼️ The use of split screens in the video draws parallels between black history and modern beauty, highlighting the contributions of black inventors and culture to the beauty industry.
- 🪄 The video celebrates black inventors like Lydia Newman, who invented the hairbrush, and includes references to black culture-specific beauty terms and practices.
- 💇♀️ The advert addresses the underrepresentation of black hair in media, showcasing various black hairstyles and the intricacies of their creation.
- 👩👧👦 It portrays positive images of black communities, such as a mother doing her child's hair, to counteract negative stereotypes often seen in media.
- 🛠️ The video discusses the DIY aspect of beauty for black women, who historically had to create their own products due to a lack of market offerings tailored to their needs.
- 📸 The advert features a diverse cast, including different ages, genders, body types, and ethnicities, emphasizing inclusivity and representation.
- 🏳️🌈 The inclusion of drag queens and male-presenting characters highlights the representation of diverse gender identities and the LGBTQ+ community in the beauty industry.
- 🔄 The video critiques online cultural appropriation and misrepresentation, where credit for certain beauty trends is often not given to their origins in black and LGBTQ+ communities.
- 🌟 The campaign by Sephora aims to support and celebrate black beauty, positioning the brand as a leader in promoting ethnic diversity and equality in the beauty industry.
- 🔍 The video addresses search engine bias, where searches for 'Black Beauty' returned irrelevant results, and the campaign's goal to change this by encouraging the use of the hashtag #BlackBeauty.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the Sephora 'Black Beauty is Beauty' advert?
-The main focus of the Sephora 'Black Beauty is Beauty' advert is to highlight media language and representation, particularly the history and contributions of black people to modern beauty trends, products, and tools.
Why was the split screen technique used in the advert?
-The split screen technique was used to draw parallels between black history and modern beauty, showing both the contrasts and similarities between the past and present, and to emphasize the contributions of black inventors to beauty products and tools.
Who is Lydia Newman and what is her contribution to beauty mentioned in the advert?
-Lydia Newman is a black female inventor who is celebrated in the advert for inventing the hairbrush, which is a significant contribution to the beauty industry.
What does the advert aim to challenge regarding the representation of black hair in media?
-The advert aims to challenge the underrepresentation and westernization of black hair in media, by showcasing the intricacies of black hairstyles, the tools and products needed, and the variety of looks that can be achieved.
What positive images are presented in the advert to counteract negative stereotypes about black communities?
-The advert presents positive images such as smiling, dancing people, and a warm, loving scene of a mother doing her child's hair, which help to counteract negative stereotypes often represented in the media.
Why did black women have to create their own beauty products and mixes?
-Black women had to create their own beauty products and mixes because there were no products marketed specifically for them, leading them to invent their own solutions to meet their unique beauty needs.
How does the advert address the issue of cultural appropriation in beauty trends?
-The advert addresses cultural appropriation by showing the origins of certain beauty trends within the black and LGBTQ+ communities, and by emphasizing the importance of crediting these communities for the styles they have created.
What is the significance of the diversity shown in the advert?
-The diversity shown in the advert, including people of different ages, genders, body sizes, and ethnicities, signifies an inclusive message and represents Sephora's commitment to celebrating all people's ability to enjoy and appreciate makeup and beauty trends.
What is the purpose of the phrase 'join Sephora' in the advert's conclusion?
-The phrase 'join Sephora' invites viewers to be part of the brand's mission to support and celebrate Black Beauty, positioning Sephora as a leader in the fight for equality and inclusivity in the beauty industry.
How does the advert's unconventional approach differ from typical beauty advertisements?
-Unlike typical beauty advertisements that focus on specific products or brands, this advert focuses more on the message of inclusivity and representation, without prominently featuring Sephora's logo or products.
What was the strategy behind releasing the advert on YouTube, Oprah Winfrey channel, and BET?
-The strategy was to target a wide audience, specifically black audiences, by placing the advert on platforms that are popular and relevant to the community, thereby increasing the visibility and impact of the campaign.
What did Sephora discover regarding search engine bias and how did they address it?
-Sephora discovered that search engine results for 'Black Beauty' were biased, often showing unrelated images like horses instead of black beauty trends. They addressed this by launching the 'Black Beauty is Beauty' campaign and using the hashtag #BlackBeauty to influence search engine results and promote accurate representation.
Who is the director of the advert and what is significant about her involvement?
-The director of the advert is Garrett Bradley, a black female director who has won several awards. Her involvement, along with a black female crew and production companies, likely contributed to the more inclusive and positive representation of black women in the advert.
Outlines
🎥 Media Representation and Black Beauty
This paragraph discusses the media language and representation in the Sephora advertisement titled 'Black Beauty is Beauty.' It is designed to be relevant for A-Level Media Studies students, as it will be a part of the curriculum from 2024. The video uses a split-screen technique to contrast past and present, drawing parallels between black history and modern beauty practices. It highlights the contributions of black inventors, such as Lydia Newman, who invented the hairbrush, and uses Black Culture slang to represent the community authentically. The advertisement also addresses the underrepresentation of black hair in media, focusing on specific styles and the products used within the black community. The video portrays positive images of black people, challenging negative stereotypes, and emphasizes the need for inclusivity and representation of black culture in beauty trends and products.
🌟 Inclusivity and Diversity in Sephora's Campaign
The second paragraph emphasizes the diversity and inclusivity portrayed in the Sephora advertisement, which features individuals of different ages, genders, body sizes, and ethnicities. The advertisement aims to engage a wide audience and represents the brand's commitment to equality. The split screen is used to show the impact and involvement of diverse individuals in creating beauty trends. The inclusion of drag queens and male characters applying makeup reflects the growing acceptance and representation of diverse gender identities in the beauty industry. The advertisement concludes with a call to action, inviting viewers to join Sephora in celebrating and supporting Black Beauty. This campaign is particularly significant for Sephora, given past controversies related to racial discrimination, and the advertisement's unconventional focus on message over product highlights the brand's dedication to promoting ethnic diversity and equality.
🔍 Addressing Search Engine Bias and Promoting Black-Owned Brands
The final paragraph delves into the research and motivations behind Sephora's 'Black Beauty is Beauty' campaign. It discusses the discovery of search engine bias against black beauty, where searches for 'Black Beauty' yielded irrelevant results, indicating an erasure of black history in beauty. Sephora's response was to launch a campaign to change search engine results by encouraging the use of the hashtag 'Black Beauty' to tag relevant content. The campaign also addresses the underrepresentation of black-owned beauty brands, with only three percent of beauty brands being black-owned and many shoppers experiencing racism in stores. The advertisement was strategically placed on platforms like YouTube, Oprah Winfrey's channel, and BET to target black audiences. The director of the video, Garrett Bradley, a black female director, and the use of a black female crew further emphasize the campaign's commitment to authentic representation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Media Language
💡Representation
💡Binary Opposites
💡Black History
💡Cultural Appropriation
💡Inclusivity
💡Diversity
💡Gender and Sexuality
💡Search Engine Bias
💡Capitalization of 'Black'
💡Unconventional Advert
Highlights
The video focuses on media language and representation, especially relevant for A-Level media studies students.
A split screen is used to draw parallels between black history and modern beauty products, emphasizing the contributions of black inventors.
The hairbrush in the advert celebrates Lydia Newman, a black female inventor, highlighting black contributions to beauty tools.
The advert uses Black Culture slang terms like 'cut creases' and 'beat faces' to represent specific beauty techniques.
Black fashion icons are featured to emphasize the influence of black culture on iconic beauty looks and trends.
The advert addresses the underrepresentation of black hair in media and highlights specific black hair care practices.
Terms like 'baby hairs' and 'laid edges' are mentioned to represent black hair care in a more inclusive way.
Positive images of smiling and dancing people challenge negative stereotypes about black communities.
A woman making her own shea butter represents the DIY approach black women had to take due to lack of suitable products.
The advert credits black women for inventing beauty products and techniques that are now widely used.
The video includes images of people vlogging and posting online, reflecting the modern context of beauty sharing.
The editing technique contrasts a white woman with black drag queens to highlight the origins of certain beauty trends.
The advert showcases diversity in age, size, gender, and ethnicity, promoting inclusivity.
Sephora positions itself as a leader in the fight for equality and ethnic diversity in the beauty industry.
The capitalized 'Black' in the advert title signifies the importance and power of black beauty.
The unconventional approach of the advert focuses on the message rather than specific products.
The advert's relatable images suggest that Sephora is a familiar and relatable brand.
The advert was strategically placed on YouTube, Oprah Winfrey channel, and BET to target specific audiences.
Sephora's campaign aimed to address search engine bias and promote black beauty online.
The director, Garrett Bradley, and the predominantly black female crew contributed to the positive representation in the advert.
Transcripts
hello and welcome to my easy to
understand Guide to the Sephora advert
black beauty is beauty this video is
going to focus on media language and
representation and is going to be
particularly relevant for you if you are
studying a QA a-level media studies as
it appears as a set product on that
specification for exams from 2024
onwards the scene is established within
a salon at the beginning here and we get
a split screen showing kind of past
versus present creating these binary
opposites perhaps for old versus new but
also helping to draw similarities
between old and new as well and this
split screen has been deliberately
chosen to draw parallels between black
history and things that have been
invented by black people and modern
Beauty modern beauty products and tools
so for example the hair brush here
celebrates Lydia Newman who was a black
female who invented the hairbrush
there are also mentions of things like
cut creases and beat faces which is a
kind of um slang term used within
particularly within Black Culture
um to refer to kind of extreme contoured
faces
they use the phrase these icons and
they're kind of referring here the
archive footage of black fashion icons
just to really reiterate the fact that
black people black culture black history
is responsible for so many iconic Beauty
looks and Trends today I've spoken in my
videos lots of times before about black
hair and how typically in in videos in
the media black hair is often
underrepresented it's often westernized
the intricacies of how it's done and
what tools are needed and the different
products that are needed and the
different looks that can be achieved are
often not mentioned in the media at all
whereas in this advert they actually
mention things like baby hairs within
the advert
um they talk about laid edges as well we
see close-ups of these so there's a real
focus on things that many black
audiences are going to be able to relate
to but also just helping to include and
represent those black issues the image
of the mother and doing her child's hair
it talks about my mother's love we get
this very warm light here it's very cozy
it feels very loving and appreciative
and then that's fired closely by a lot
of shots of smiling dancing people these
are very positive images that help to
challenge some of the more negative
stereotypes about black communities that
are often represented in the media
there's a scene here where a woman is
kind of making her own shea butter
um and it even says doing it yourself
within the lyrics
um and she's kind of mixing it up
potions and stuff and it kind of helps
to represent this idea that actually
there's a lot of products out there that
black women had to invent themselves
because they just weren't made by
companies there were no products that
they needed that were actually marketed
specifically for them and so many black
women had to actually kind of come up
with their own potions mixes they had to
do their own
um gels and creams because the products
just simply weren't there for them and
so many black women were actually
responsible for creating these products
as well as things like the mixing of
products cut creases contouring I also
mentioned things like acrylic nails uh
glitter extensions a lot of these
products people uh you know in modern
audiences just have no idea that they
came from black history
there's some images here where the um
words of the advert say the uh the
Styles we can't wait to post and we see
a picture
um we actually see picture in picture as
though somebody is vlogging or posting
online on their social media and this
perhaps reflects the context of the fact
that so many people are online now we
get a lot of Beauty vloggers Online in
particular but it perhaps also reflects
this idea that there is a certain amount
of cultural appropriation or
misrepresentation online where a lot of
beauty vloggers or influencers
um celebrities often take credit for
ideas for Styles as though they've
created them themselves without actually
crediting the very real history in
particular of minorities that were
involved in creating those looks and
Trends the editing here really helps to
emphasize this idea of cultural
Appropriations so we see what appears to
be a white woman doing a cut crease on
her eyelid and then this Cuts straight
to some black drag queens doing very
similar cut creases and extreme
contouring and is this editing technique
that helps show actually this is where
that Trend came from you know this very
much was established in the drag queen
community so within the lgbtq community
but also within the black community as
well
this also perhaps suggests that lgbtq
communities are often also denied credit
for trends that they create the
diversity within the video is obvious
there are people who are younger older
male female thinner larger so it's it's
quite diverse it's quite inclusive and
perhaps that's the message of the advert
is about inclusivity and the 12 picture
split screen helps to emphasize that the
sheer amount of people that have been
affected the number of people who have
been involved in the creation of Trends
it shows um you know it's trying to
attract a wide audience and engage a
number of people from all different
backgrounds
as well as inclusivity in terms of
ethnicity within the advert size body
shape age there's also inclusivity of
gender and sexuality as well so for
example we see drag queens in the
montages we see
um male presenting uh characters within
the video putting on makeup as well so
um it's it's really all about everyone
enjoying makeup and all people being
able to enjoy makeup and appreciate the
history of these Trends and tools
and perhaps reflects this rise in more
diverse gender representations in the
media perhaps more acceptance
particularly within the beauty
industries that there are more male
Beauty influencers and vloggers so
perhaps that's why they've chosen to
include uh male characters drag queens
Etc as well at the end of the advert it
says join Sephora in supporting and
celebrating Black Beauty the idea of the
phrase join Sephora suggests that
Sephora is at the front as a brand there
at the front of this fight for equality
um so it's presenting the brand as being
very included and part of and not just
part of but leading this campaign and
this is obviously something they want to
do to promote their brand particularly
because in the past they've had some
issues and controversies in the media
for perhaps some racial discrimination
within their stores so this is a very
deliberate Choice by the brand by the
who made the advert to present to the
company as being
interested and able to and willing to
fight for uh ethnic diversity and equal
equality
the fact that the word black is
capitalized at the beginning as well
it's this idea of black power and
importance and dominance
as an advert it's quite unconventional
most adverts Focus very much on
particular products or a particular
brand so for example they would show the
Sephora logo or they would show products
that are sold within Sephora stores or
they would show a Sephora store this
advert doesn't really show those things
at all so the focus is very much more on
the message rather than the product so
that's that makes us quite
unconventional there's lots of images
that are relatable within this advert so
the images of people in their own homes
their bedrooms hair salons it makes it
feel like this is quite relatable and
familiar to an audience and perhaps
suggests that Sephora is a very
relatable familiar brand as well when
the advert Was Made It was obviously put
onto YouTube which is a great way of
targeting an audience it was also put
onto the Oprah Winfrey channel and the
BET channel so it's that's Black
Entertainment Television in America and
this is there to specifically Target
black audience season in particular
black American audiences where Sephora
the brand was primarily based more
recently Sephora has moved to the UK as
well but when the advert came out this
was primarily for an American audience
it's really useful if you're studying
this advert to watch the extended
version on YouTube by Sephora that shows
the kind of context behind the advert
and there's also a link to their website
as well which gives more context and
this explains that Sephora was
researching something called search
engine bias which means that when people
were searching for things like Black
Beauty Asian beauty British Beauty
American Beauty
um you know they were finding different
search results so for example somebody
searching uh Korean beauty was seeing
images of Korean models beauty products
Etc the history of Korean beauty
somebody searching French Beauty was
seeing those answers but somebody
searching Black Beauty was actually
finding images of horse is because black
beauty is a very old book and film and
and the idea that there was very little
in the search engines about beauty and
black history
um and so um it kind of felt that black
audiences were getting very biased
search results whereby their history was
being erased so Sephora decided to start
the campaign
um and uh again you know we could be
very cynical and say that this is all
about creating kind of um a great
reputation for the brand but also they
did use a hashtag which was Black Beauty
um and they wanted to start this trend
they got audiences tagging photos of
themselves or videos anytime they found
a video with a black influencer or black
Trends black tools Etc online they would
tag it with black beauty in an attempt
to actually manipulate the search engine
results
the research that they found When They
carried out these surveys and
questionnaires and they did research
online found that only three percent of
Beauty Brands were actually black owned
um they found that 78 of Shoppers found
that they don't see enough Brands made
for people from different ethnic
backgrounds
um and that two out of five Shoppers
actually experienced racism
discrimination based on their skin color
in stores and so there's a very
legitimate reason why Sephora have
decided to create this campaign with
these representations
the director of the video is a lady
called Garrett Bradley who's actually
won several Awards She's a black female
director she used deliberately a black
female crew and production companies as
well and again that perhaps might
explain why the representations in
particular of black women are very much
more inclusive and positive than they
are perhaps in other media products so
that was my easy to understand Guide to
the Sephora black beauty is beauty
advert don't forget to subscribe to my
channel for more videos that are going
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