Dive Brief:
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After the success of her Pull Up for Change campaign last summer, Sharon Chuter, founder of Uoma Beauty, launched a new campaign dubbed Make it Black on Friday to "redefine what it means to be Black" and raise funds for Black founders, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.
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The campaign includes nine beauty brands: Briogeo, Colourpop, Dragun Beauty, Flower Beauty, Maybelline, Morphe, NYX Professional Makeup, Pur and Uoma Beauty. The brands will repackage their most iconic beauty products in black and will be sold exclusively through Ulta, as well as the individual brand websites and a Make it Black website.
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All of the gross profits from the products will go to the Pull Up for Change Impact Fund, which will provide capital to Black-owned businesses and give grants to emerging Black founders voted on by the public. People can also donate directly to the fund.
Dive Insight:
Building upon the impact of the Pull Up for Change initiative, and timed to match up with Black History Month, Chuter's latest campaign will run throughout February to raise funds for Black businesses and founders.
Chuter's Pull Up for Change initiative came out over the summer as retailers were struggling with how to respond to protests against systemic racism, and consumers were pushing them to make meaningful changes at the corporate level. The campaign called upon retailers to release statistics about the number of Black people they have at different levels of their organization and find ways to improve that number.
The Make it Black campaign is targeted differently but still centered on supporting the Black community. Chuter aims to redefine how the color Black is perceived, and the campaign comes along with a petition to the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam Webster Dictionary to get their definitions of the word changed.
"The Dictionary is the singular source of truth when it comes to defining language and it has cast into language the vilification of all things black and set our collective consciousness to equate black as bad," the press release reads. "Make it BLACK is making a bold statement to change the inaccurate and dangerous dictionary definitions of the word and focus on the fact that Black is the color of absolute luxury – it's chic, classic, timeless, and iconic."
That's where the repackaging of beauty brands' iconic products comes in as well. By associating these products with the color black, the campaign is "reclaiming the word black and making consumers understand that black is nothing but beautiful." The partnership also comes with the backing of one of the biggest players in beauty: Ulta, which recently announced its commitments to diversity and inclusion, including doubling the number of Black-owned brands in its assortment by the end of the year.
"We are thrilled to build upon our partnership with Sharon and support Pull Up For Change as the exclusive retailer of Make it BLACK," Dave Kimbell, president of Ulta Beauty, said in a statement. "This campaign brings incredible beauty brands together to amplify and celebrate Black voices, which we are incredibly committed to at Ulta Beauty. We are proud to offer our guests a curated, limited-edition assortment that can spark a powerful dialogue, help shift perceptions, and very importantly, accelerate future beauty leaders’ on their journeys."