Rada Petrovic Copywriter

The Body Shop had a global brand relaunch in 2012. As Head of Copy, I worked on creative strategy and directed the copy for all launch assets. My first tasks were to deliver a strapline that captured the brand platform of beauty with ethics, a manifesto and a new tone of voice that would be rolled out across all channels.

Each relaunch campaign integrated product promotion with an ethical theme – in this case, fair trade. This integration played out visually and verbally from window through to store and beyond to digital. A new message hierarchy and structure was established. All headlines contained a command and all copy was built on the three brand pillars of beauty, joy and activism.

This campaign promoted a cruelty-free make-up range by Lily Cole and celebrated the brand’s longstanding position against animal testing. The storytelling plays out in the window, in-store and online, using key icons, headlines, catch phrases and spin-off content, and beyond via social media and editorial.

After the relaunch, all creative for new product campaigns follows new visual and verbal guidelines: the model or product against a colour background, a natural ingredient where applicable, and a headline with a call to action. The ‘butter up’ headline in the relaunch campaign has become a franchise in its own right, one of the many ownable features which will continue to embed the new brand style.