In 2012, Alice Newstead, an employee of the cosmetics company Lush, took part in a rather unusual window display. Alice covered herself in body paint to resemble a shark, where a pair of meat hooks were then inserted into the skin of her back and was hung in Lush’s window shop. This was part of a campaign against shark finning, the practice whereby sharks are caught, their fins cut off and are then thrown back in the ocean to die.
Lush is one of a number of businesses to have taken corporate social responsibility one step further by setting itself up as an activist company. “We look at issues and we decide which ones are important to us and then we see how we can support them,” explains Andrew Butler, the company’s director of campaigns.
Another Campaign by Lush. The women in the picture is Jaqueline Traide, a volunteer who joined Lush’s campaign to protest again animal testing
By embracing CSR, Lush has differentiated its brand from other cosmetic’s stores for the values and concerns they clearly display to their customers. They were also able to incorporate those values company’s in to their business model. Furthermore, Using CSR helped Lush engage with customers in new ways. Since the reflected message is about something “good,” it provides an easier way to talk and relate to customers.