ESTRID
HUMAN RENAISSANCE
BRIEF
We’re obviously not surprised at the influence the beauty industry has. But it is seriously hard to believe how glacial the pace of inclusion is.
Razors ‘for her’ that’ll cost you an extra pound because they’re pink still exist. As do manly brushed metal Mandalorian ones ‘for him’ that look like they were created by George Lucas’s prop department. Even the simple act of hair removal has been glorified in (male-made) advertising, with pretty pin-ups perched daintily on the edges of baths as they tend to their smooth, impossibly long, smudge-free legs.
It’s for this very reason our client, the brilliant, bold, non-binary beauty brand, Estrid, has been on a mission to revolutionise the beauty sector, starting with razors. Their goal: to create non-toxic products that are designed with humankind in mind and with diversity and inclusivity at their core.
Estrid’s brief to us? To fight the fight against the boring, binary beauty world, celebrating diverse hair choices, bodies and individuals, to dispel the toxic preconceptions of the definition of what it truly means to be beautiful. Yup, a razor brand that celebrates people growing body hair, wow.
IDEA
So, we took nine of the most famous paintings from the Renaissance and reimagined them for the 21st century. We cast some of the most exciting and most diverse influencers across Europe as our subjects and, in doing so, explicitly reinserted body hair back into the frame.
We worked with trans models Gialu and Nadia to update Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam to celebrate armpit hair. We partnered with Kyra to turn Carracci’s Venus, Adonis and Cupid to show the beauty of leg hair, unairbrushed skin, and vitiligo. Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus now features Esther, standing in the same famed shell but this time, proudly posing with her chest, stomach and bikini-line hair on show. Each and every person we partnered with brought a new and unique version of beauty for us to celebrate through our artworks, redefining and celebrating true human beauty as it exists in today’s world, perfectly suited to the pages
RESULTS
What started as a UK-only influencer idea, quickly became so much bigger as our client bought more and more into the campaign (and in doing so, unlocked more and more budget).
We secured stunning hero pieces in lifestyle media across Europe in the likes of Glamour, Grazia, Resumé (SEK), Kaltblut (DE), Nouveau (FR) plus dozens more, resulting in a combined total reach of 11,834,000.
Another step in the right direction, a slightly less toxic beauty industry and a slightly more reappraised view of the true meaning of beauty: whatever makes you feel yourself.
