The shave brand is back with another thought-provoking film—and not a razor in sight.
Billie Challenges the Ideal of the ‘Perfect’ Woman in its New Campaign
For decades, razor brands perpetuated some of the most antiquated ideals in the beauty industry—with one-note depictions of femininity and shaming messages about what women should and should not be doing with their bodies. Billie has been on a mission to change that.
The indie brand, which made headlines for being the first razor ad to show female body hair, has been pushing the envelope since it entered the market in 2017. Originally created to stop the pink tax, i.e., the extra cost for “female”-branded body-care products, Billie has made a name for itself by celebrating women’s bodily autonomy through all its campaigns. A year after its original Project Body Hair ad, it released Red, White, and You Do You, which champions pubic hair, and Movember, which is the first ad featuring facial hair on women and femmes.
The brand is at it again with its new film “Think of a Woman” to celebrate International Women’s Day. The video, directed by Quinn Whitney Wilson and narrated by Indya Moore, asks you to think of “the perfect woman,” and then quickly fights back against every stereotype you've been conditioned to imagine.
“For years society has been conditioned to hold a narrow view of what it means to be a ‘woman’—feminine, nurturing, emotional, sexy,” says Billie cofounder Georgina Gooley. “When you exist outside of these traditional norms, you can feel like an outcast. As a brand that champions womankind, we felt we had the opportunity to challenge how people have traditionally thought of it. We wanted to relieve all women from the incredibly limiting boxes, gender roles, and societal pressures that ‘being a woman’ or ‘looking like a woman’ entails.”
One of Billie’s main missions is to lessen the pressures of all expectations surrounding body hair. Whether you shave it off regularly, only when you feel like it, or not at all is your prerogative. While all of the brand’s previous ads have centered around body hair, Gooley felt that it was the perfect time to expand the messaging to widen that relief across the board.
In addition to the film, the brand is launching The Billie Brain Scan, an interactive exercise created with Gail Tolstoi-Miller, an unconscious-bias expert and diversity and corporate culture strategist. The exercise helps to expose your own unconscious biases and is a “first step in broadening the lens in which we view womankind,” according to the brand.
It’s rare to see a brand spend its resources on a campaign without a spec of product placement, but as Gooley has said time and again, it’s about so much more than sales. “We hope to include and celebrate the full spectrum of womanhood for those who exist outside of the traditional mold while simultaneously relieving all people who identify as women from the limiting traditional gender roles and societal pressures that ‘being a woman’ or ‘looking like a woman’ has meant for so long.”
Bella Cacciatore is the beauty associate at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @bellacacciatore_.
This story originally appeared on: Glamour - Author:Bella Cacciatore
