Carol’s Daughter tapped Cassie, Solange Knowles and Selita Ebanks for a new multicultural ad campaign aimed at redefining what it means to be beautiful.
Photographed by Cliff Watts at Milk Studios, the three starlets represent multiple ethnicities—Cassie, African-American and Filipina, Selita, Jamaican, Irish, Indian and African and Solange, African-American and French Creole—which coincides with trends emerging from the U.S. Census as Chairman Steve Stoute told WWD.
“What we’re doing now is moving into a polyethnic space. When I say polyethnic, I mean women who are made up of several ethnicities,” Stoute explained. “If you ask them what they are, they’re going to use a lot of different words to describe themselves. That’s in line with the Census data coming out — people are checking much more than two boxes.”
The three stars’ looks are just as diverse as their ethnicities. Their hair textures range from sleek tresses to waves to natural curls and skin tones from olive to brown. With the new campaign which debuts in June, Carol’s Daughter becomes one of the first beauty brands, alongside Estee Lauder, to recognize the value in marketing to diverse clients with various complexions and hair types.
The company’s goal is to appeal to a “millennial generation, which is basically a colorless society,” said Stoute. “They don’t see color anymore. They’ll say, ‘my father’s black, my mother’s white’ — there are all these ethnicities that make up these people, and what we decided to do was mirror what’s happening in America.”
What do you think of Carol’s Daughter’s new campaign? Do you agree that America is becoming a more “colorless” society?
-Jessica C. Andrews
What about including someone who is just Black or just African? They’re not breaking down accepted forms of beauty in Black women if all they feature are light-skinned, mixed women. These women are beautiful, yes, and do represent the ethnic variety amongst the African Diaspora, but featuring then is not showcasing an under-represented form of beauty.
Took the words out of my mouth Natalie.
“The three stars’ looks are just as diverse as their ethnicities.”
Are they serious with that statement?? They’re seemingly in the same skin tone range (at least as displayed by this picture) and two of the three are rocking straight hair….So 2 of 3 are light skin with straight hair. Ethic diversity – yes, “look” diversity – no.
And also might I add that they aren’t doing poor solange ANY justice! She is so dynamic in other campaigns/photos. Not here though.
To say Cassie and Selita have the same look because they’re both light is just ridiculous. Cassie and Selita’s complexions are clearly different.
But I agree they could have used another girl with a darker complexion. Where was Kelly Rowland? Jessica White? Tika Sumpter? That would have showed a better variety of looks.
The full quote is as follows: “The three stars’ looks are just as diverse as their ethnicities. Their hair textures range from sleek tresses to waves to natural curls and skin tones from olive to brown.”
They refere to their complexions and their hair. My repsonse was that 1) in whatever lighting they have these women in, they all look around the same complexion – with SLIGHT variations, and 2) 2 of the three have straight hair.
So my point was that to say that they represent different “looks” to me seems a bit ridiculous.
Nice, very nice to have a positive spin on all the wonderful colors that we are.
Is America becoming colorless? No. And I’m giving a mean sideeye to anyone who thinks this just because women(or men) are checking more boxes on a census form.
Right?! I was going with it until I read “colorless society”. *side eye* stop right there.
hope solange looks better in the actual ad when it comes out. this photo from the shoot is not the biz
If America were a more colorless society then people wouldn’t still be questioning where the President was born.
And quite frankly, why is Solange in the background?
I don’t know if it’s the lighting or the Photoshop, but all three are almost the same complexion. They should have added the singer Res to the campaign. That would have been more diversity.
Even though the idea alone would equal to Utopia, America will never become a colorless society because that’s not what it was founded on and plus perpetuating thoughts of racial superiority equals to financial well being for those who benefit the most from it.
It seems that everyone has jumped the gun on this latest census by starting to revamp voting districts because of the tremendous growth of non-Caucasians in them and now this BS. Yes, these women represent the various skin hues that comprise women of African descent, but they are not the only representation of our beauty and quite frankly I’m tired of seeing this in every medium presented to us. I could check other on the census too, but I hate those things that ask me to choose my level of humanity, I’m not a category or a label.
Perhaps, what Steve Stoute’s marketing firm has done has lost Carols Daughter a lot of customers by offending them. And yes I’m offended by this. The richly hued woman of African descent has been ignored for a long time, not only by the Caucasian owned media but also by the African American owned media because of what she represents.The African beauty aesthetic.
As he says things are changing and society is becoming colorless, well I think it’s high time that we start removing the color green(our money)from those who don’t represent our beauty in it’s full spectrum. Selling women a falsehood that they don’t measure up to a standard of beauty is hurtful on so many fronts. This creates insecurities in our daughters who believe that they aren’t beautiful because this kind of crap is presented to them as what beauty should look like so that they can be acceptable in life. Selling insecurity is big business in the world and it’s sad. We’ve go to do better by calling these companies out. People have no idea how alienation enriches the pockets of those who create it while ours remain empty.
And speaking of the Estee Lauder Company, they featured Liya Kebede in their ads before Joan Smalls. Yes, they recently hired Liu Wen for the Asian market, but the company is already established in Asia. China and India are the biggest emerging markets and China and India is what all the luxury firms are now concentrating heavily on, in other words, they’re following the money.
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL IN ALL SHADES,FROM THE DEEPEST EBONY TO ALABASTER AND IT SHOULD BE CELEBRATED AS SUCH.
Thank you for this thought provoking post and the truth will set us all free no matter how painful.
I suport your message one hundred percent.
Hey I was just going to mention Liya Kebede and Joan Smalls but you beat me to it
Arlensis Desosa for Lancome. I swear there is one ad where the Lancome people darkened her skin in the ad. Also Bobbi Brown uses real women within her books and she usues a wide range of blk women. Don’t forget about MAC. Nars has had Naomi Campbell and Alec Wek as the face of the company. Mary Kay used Nicola(now an art buyer) and Garcelle Beauvais. YSL just had Jordan Dunn in it’s ad. Clinquie used a blk model from ANTM in a comerical. Sally Hansen just had Fatima Saide from ANTM in an Ad.
lets not forget Fashion Fair and the other the blk owned beauty compaines out there. Iman cosmetics has used Kinée Diouf in it’s ads.
Yea I have to say…I love ALL the ladies but DAMN can we get some real diversity here??? You cannot tell me when you look at this picture you see all shades and colors of black beauty! I’m not even gonna state the obvious…Solange is stuck all the way in the back SMH wonder why???!!! I like Carol’s daughter and their products but seriously this is just another BIG SIGH moment….really? I guess this is the diversity of black beauty to them, but it just seems downright ignorant to me.
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While I applaud their efforts in the new campaign, I would have appreciated it more if they would have expanded the range in celebrities – by age and ethnicity. I think that attracts a larger consumer pool for the right reasons. Alek Wek, Viola Davis, Angela Bassett are a few of my suggestions.
That’s the other thing I noticed – all the girls are under 30ish. It’s great that these girls were offered this opportunity, but I still think there are better up-and-coming models/singers/actresses who could be featured for this campaign.
Since I am not represented on in this campaign, it’s safe to conclude they do not have products for my 4b hair. Carol’s daughter is not just used by African Americans or mixed people. I am a dark skinned African in Canada and love their products but since they are telling me they do not cater to the ‘colour’ people, I shall have to pull back the green. In complete agreement with you Von
girl Solange is a 4b if there ever was one.
btw, I don’t care much for the reformulated Carol’s Daughters products.
Sincerly 4A-4b sister.
I don’t get it. I just see three light-skinned blk women. Why are they of the same race if the ad was supposed to be showing America’s diversity.
off topic: i thought selita ebanks was from the cayman islands. (if you’re making an argument about where people are from, steve, i think it should be accurate statements)
anyway, as usual, i am annoyed by the lack of diversity in a beauty campaign. what is even more insulting is that it is being described as diverse. apparently, my complexion and anything close to it is non-existent.
My initial reaction when I saw the title for the article was “Wow good for them.” I was happy to see these ladies getting their ad campaign on until I read the impetus behind it being to usher in some new era of diverse representation (for Black women). I use Carol’s Daughter’s products and I have to say this makes me less enthusiastic about the brand. I would have liked to have seen a Black woman with a milk chocolate complexion like mine looking back at me. I expected more from a black owned company.
And why did they do Solange dirty like this. She has the potential to deliver a stunning photograph (flashback to the photocall for Samantha Thavasa handbags with her newly shorn hair). They got her looking like Gonzo and in the background no less. I’ve started using a conditioner by Shea Moisture and I love it. I took a chance on it when I saw it in Target while replenishing my Kinky-Curly supply. It’s the only conditioner I’ve tried since shaving my head and going natural in ’04 that has been able to replenish much needed moisture to my usually very dry hair. I’m going to be throwing more of my money towards these companies in the future if it’s like that (Carol’s Daughter). Message to Ms. Price: Take the reigns back on your company. Why is Steve Stoute speaking for you. Was this your original vision for your brand? Or maybe this has something to do with where the shelves that hold your brand are (Macy’s and Sephora). I know he drew investors to the brand but obviously he doesn’t really know how to properly cater to black women or represent them.
I love Carol’s Daughter, I use it daily with my daughters! I also love the goal of the new campaign. However, I do have to side with many of those who have responded to this story. Where is the true diversity in this picture? The range of backgrounds is great but we truly need some brown skin added! The fair skinned ladies are pretty much all we see in the media despite the fact that we are a people of so many different beautiful skin tones and looks!
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Its ironic you usually see light skinned or mixed race black girls or dark skinned girls with eccentric hairtypes. That was how it was in media and movies for the longest time. I never saw any brown skinned women or they were far and few.
Then, you would see these women playing the role that of downtrodden or aggressive in comparision to the white counterpart that played glamourous and blithe. Be the bad beep that is going to set everyone free and save “katie” from the horrors of the world! LOL That is all well and dandy. It was mundane to say the least but whatever.
Now roles are getting better and I am seeing brown skinned black biracial and black girls all over. Occassional and sometimes recurrent dark skinned blakc women and equal amount light skinned or biracial black women. They still play bad roles to like the dark skinned girl in precious.
I have been so many brown skinned women lately be it reality shows, tv and more increasingly in movies. It was a lot like at first you see the blondes and red heads but where are the brunettes.
As black women it is not whether whatever color of black woman or biracial black woman cant identify with another that is not that problem. It is clear they are all of black heritage or with black in them. But the wording they use and the role they played was in poor reflection. Afterall, I could more identify with selita than with jada pinkett smith and I can identify with her too. Selita changes colors and sometimes she is extremely brown. Sometimes not so much but I look at her and her hair with and skin range and I see alot black women can identify with her more than taraji henson or mary j blige for that matter.
Where the heck is the advertisement for this on their site? You know I think it is great that a black woman has such a business. I seen her products a while back and never bought any because of the ingredients. She seems to put too much in her products and is aiming to be so fancy swancy. To much fragance too. Too much herbals. Some of that is not necessarily good for everyone. Too much estrogen based products to much herbs that may cause allergies.
I like the fact that she is about the no parabens and being more natural. I love that! But I have never bought any of her products. She seems to be cocoa butter obessesed. American women are obessed with cocoa butter. But they really are more harm than good. Vitamin e is better shea is more suiting.
There is the light black women and biracial black women like Keyshia cole, beyonce and alicia. Then there are the brown skinned biracial and black skin tone that can range from various brown like amerie liya kebede naomi then there are dark skinned brown like gabrielle, foxy brown, and there is the deepest of black like alek wek. No one here seems to have a problem with these women or their tone of blackness. I think there is objection into having other choices of women that they may like or that they needed real diversity. But, I dont think there is anything wrong with the women they chose they have been using Jada and Mary for years. Black is black as human is human. It is all relatable.
It just irritates me when other peoples(if you know what I mean) start worryinga bout it. Like on CNN. Would essences please stop using blacks as scientific experiments. CNN is obsessed with blackness and not what I percieve a very good or uplifting way. You know blacks have alot of issues when they need not a black america 1 but a black america 2. Really?
By a bright skinned pale biracial woman herself. LOL…
I like the product whoop ash much better than carols daughter and that one curly product sold in whole foods cant think of it right now the name curly something. anyway. they have the most best ingredients they are simple and natural and good pure stuff. Not frangrance laden.
What I like about whoop ash is that yeah she may mention that she is half black and half italian but she is not beating you down with her skin tone or others skin tone that she is light skinned with long hair and defining beauty lol. Its like I have a funny named product that will fix what you looking to fix now come buy it cha ching!
Those darn french wiennies have strong genes! Those french creoles are beautiful people. They may have been mixed back when what hundreds of years ag but now they are just pretty much white looking.Too be french creole and black and still have those traces of that history and be black like most barnyard babies. French fries that made alot of spuds! LOL
I guess that would explain that french name beyonce?
Black people that is why they come in so many colors. You have some with genes from hundreds of years ago. What possibly could Carol Daughter be redefining? They act like they have a revelation or something! Hmmm….
Sounds and looks like bad advertising run a muck!
Sorry, but these spokesmodels are a fail. If your audience is black women, why would you hire Cassie? Her hair texture is not one most black women can relate to. Her hair needs are not the same as those with kinky hair. Solange? French creole? Really? This entire campaign is silly and horrible marketing. There are many models that could have been used,but more importantly CD doesn’t seem to understand or care to understand its core audience. They need better PR.