17612: On Celebrating Inclusive Beauty.

  

From The Drum…

What Notting Hill carnival teaches us about beauty’s inclusivity problem

By Manish Tiwari, Chairman & Founder Here&Now365

Notting Hill Carnival is a masterclass in what inclusive beauty really looks like. Here&Now 365’s Preet Khanna argues that brands need to go beyond diverse casting and prove their credentials through product, presence and genuine participation in culture.

Every August, Notting Hill Carnival showcases the same beauty truth: the haircare industry still hasn’t caught up with the people it serves. Locs, coils, braids, twists and afros filled the streets, worn loud, proud and completely unfiltered. But most of the products lining supermarket shelves were designed with none of that texture in mind.

So, what better test of a haircare brand than Notting Hill Carnival, where hours of dancing, heat and humidity leave a product that doesn’t perform with nowhere to hide?

At Vatika Naturals, over 140 years have gone into building a brand around one belief: no hair type should be left behind by generic haircare standards. This year, that belief met its truest test at Notting Hill Carnival. The result was #CarnivalOfStrands, a campaign built not simply as a marketing exercise, but as a genuine attempt to meet the community where it already was.

As Roshni Singh, head of marketing at Vatika Naturals, put it: “Our ethos has always been to embrace your natural self, and that belief sits at the heart of everything we create for our multi-ethnic audiences. #CarnivalOfStrands was a genuine attempt to cater to every hair type and celebrate the unique rhythm of every strand, part of a wider journey to build a brand that speaks to the full diversity of hair textures across our communities.”

What did this year’s Carnival tell us about building an inclusive beauty brand?

The gap is about presence, not awareness

Most ‘inclusive’ haircare campaigns stop at representation in imagery: a wider range of models, a more diverse casting brief. That’s necessary, but it’s not sufficient. What became clear early on was that the real gap was physical. Brands simply weren't showing up in the spaces where textured hair is most visibly, joyfully on display. So instead of running the campaign purely through digital media, Vatika went to where the hair was, taking over key spaces at Paddington Station to greet Carnival-goers the moment they stepped off the train.

That decision reshaped how the campaign was thought about as a whole. A poster can say a brand is inclusive but simply meeting someone where they are already celebrating says it more convincingly than any headline could.

Culture-first doesn’t mean culture-adjacent

There’s a difference between borrowing a moment and actually contributing to it. Partnering with Sundivas, a London-based music duo, let Vatika carry its brand ethos, ‘own your story, let them know’, through sound rather than just signage. It’s a small distinction, but an important one: Carnival’s invitation to show up exactly as you are works best when a brand adds something to that spirit rather than simply attaching itself to it.

Product credibility still must do the work

None of this lands without the product actually performing. Vatika’s Aquaboost and Curls Oil ranges exist because curl patterns behave differently under heat, humidity and hours of movement, the exact conditions Carnival puts hair through. But the bigger lesson for the industry isn’t about any single formula. It’s that inclusivity claims collapse quickly if the product itself was never built with textured hair as the standard, rather than an addition to an existing range. Carnival is where that promise was put to the test and proven right.

It’s more than just one campaign message

The haircare industry’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach has rarely reflected what Carnival looks like on the streets, and that mismatch isn’t unique to one event. It shows up every time a brand treats textured hair as a niche rather than a norm.

What #CarnivalOfStrands reinforced is that closing that gap takes more than a campaign message; it takes formulation built for the full range of textures, and a willingness to show up physically in the communities a brand says it's serving.

Vatika doesn’t claim to have solved that. But the brand came away from this Carnival with a sharper sense of what “inclusive” has to mean in practice: not a wider casting call, but a wider standard, for what counts as normal hair, and for where a brand is willing to turn up and prove it.

17304: Unilever CMGO Going Away.

 

Adweek reported on CMO moves at Unilever, whereby the mega-marketer appears to have simultaneously reduced DEIBA+ and increased the employment challenges faced by US Black women.

 

Unilever Won’t Replace the CMGO Title as Esi Eggleston Bracey Exits 

 

Instead, beauty and wellbeing CMO Leandro Barreto will add enterprise duties to his remit

 

By Rebecca Stewart

 

Esi Eggleston Bracey, Unilever’s chief marketing and growth officer (CMGO), is set to leave in January 2026 after just over two years in the role and eight years with the business.

 

The CMGO position will not be replaced like-for-like, Unilever confirmed to ADWEEK. Instead, Leandro Barreto, chief marketing officer, Unilever Beauty and Wellbeing, will extend his remit to include Unilever’s enterprise marketing agenda.

 

The move reflects what Unilever describes as the next phase of its marketing transformation, which will bring global marketing capabilities closer to its business groups, resulting in faster execution and impact.

 

Bracey will stay on through January to support Barreto in the transition.

 

A new marketing era

 

In 2023, Unilever (which owns over 400 brands) restructured its business around five key groups: personal care; beauty and well-being; nutrition; home care; and ice cream, which was spun off in December 2025 as the Magnum Ice Cream company.

 

As the restructuring took hold, Eggleston Bracey was appointed as CMGO to lead the team of marketers overseeing these divisions.

 

She also took responsibility for Unilever’s network of digital marketing, media, and commerce hubs, which pool talent from across the business to deliver “seamless consumer experiences” across platforms.

 

Bracey joined Unilever in 2018 as evp and chief operating officer overseeing its personal care division in North America.

 

During that time, she pioneered the company’s then purpose-driven marketing approach. She also spearheaded Dove’s efforts to back the Crown Act, a proposed federal ban on workplace discrimination based on hairstyle or texture.

 

In her two years as CMGO, Bracey has been credited with leading Unilever into its digital marketing era, placing an emphasis on driving brand relevance at scale across brands, including Dove, Hellmann’s, and Persil. She’s also pioneered AI experiments to drive marketing and content efficiencies.

 

Barreto, a 23-year Unilever vet, will now be tasked with bridging Unilever’s long-term growth ambitions with business group-level execution.

 

A ‘sales and marketing’ machine

 

Since taking the reins in March 2025, CEO Fernando Fernandez has been increasing Unilever’s marketing budget to build a “marketing and sales machine” in an environment ripe with challengers and where consumers are cutting discretionary spend.

 

So far, his strategy has included a pledge to invest 30 to 50% of its $8 billion annual ad spend to “social-first” campaigns, and work with 20-times more influencers in the process.

 

Beauty and wellbeing, for which Barreto oversees marketing, have been central to pushing up Unilever’s profits, which increased 3.9% year-on-year to reach $17.2 million in October.

17301: White Man Of The Year 2025.

Instead of the regular “Year In Review” post, MultiCultClassics introduces White Man Of The Year 2025.

 

The new honor spotlights the White Man who made the greatest negative impact on Adland in the last 12 months—as well as contributed to DEIBA+ devolution.

 

The inaugural award goes to two White men whose actions have dramatically affected the global industry, albeit in extraordinarily different ways.

 

Omnicom Chairman, CEO, and Pioneer of Diversity John Wren

 

Wren orchestrated the Omnicom acquisition of IPG, which technically began and was announced in 2024 (maybe earlier).

 

The scheme ignited global pruning, radical RIFs, and iconic nameplate erasures. And the corporate demolition/deconstruction/desecration is expected to extend into 2026 and beyond.

 

Blending an organization led by the Pioneer of Diversity with a gobbledygook-vomiting enterprise recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion marked the pinnacle of performative PR. Then again, the lack of transparency involving anti-DEIBA+ maneuvers prohibited assessing how much collateral damage of color occurred. It’s a safe bet, however, that the acquisition accelerated the employment challenges faced by US Black women.

 

In short, thousands of livelihoods—along with countless uncounted Dawn Chambers—were eliminated.

 

President Donald J. Trump

 

Tylenol, Tariffs, Bashing Big Pharma, and Anti-Woke + Anti-DEIBA+ are just the tip of the Trump iceberg that might sink Adland. ‘Nuff said.

17300: Trump Trumps DEIBA+.

Can’t help but think Trump Store represents the polar opposite of WeLoveUs.shop

 

President Donald J. Trump argued citizens should significantly reduce the number of purchased pencils and dolls. Yet does anyone need even a single item on this website?

17299: We Heart WeLoveUs.shop

Digiday published a report on Essence launching WeLoveUs.shop, an online marketplace dedicated to Black women-led brands.

 

The content is definitely worth reading, as it underscores how everything from Target to Trump Tariffs have contributed and conspired to accelerate the employment challenges impacting US Black women.

 

Media giant Essence launches a marketplace for Black women-led brands

 

By Allison Smith

 

The story was first published by Digiday sibling ModernRetail

 

When LaToya Stirrup’s brand Kazmaleje first landed on Target’s shelves in 2022, it felt like a dream come true. The Miami-based founder had spent years building her hair-tool brand — which she launched in 2019 — and securing placement at a national big-box retailer gave her scale and visibility that would’ve been harder to achieve on her own.

 

At the time, Target touted its wholesale partnership with Kazmeleje, along with 20 other Black-owned or founded beauty brands, as part of a broader commitment to spend more than $2 billion with Black-led businesses by 2025. Target said the initiative “will help us create more equitable experiences for our Black guests, and use our company’s size, scale and resources to create economic opportunity for Black-owned businesses that extends outside of Target.”

 

But earlier this year, Stirrup noticed “a complete sales slowdown” at Target. She attributed it to consumers who had stopped shopping at the retailer because of the company’s DEI rollback. After Target announced it would scale back some of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in January, calls to stop shopping at the retailer spread. Modern Retail reported in August that many once-loyal Target shoppers were still boycotting the retailer because of its DEI rollback.

 

As a result of declining sales — Stirrup declined to share exact figures — Target decided to remove Kazmaleje’s products from its physical stores, she said. Beginning in 2026, she said the brand will be sold online-only at Target, via Target.com. Target declined to comment.

 

Stirrup is one of dozens of Black women founders navigating a particularly challenging moment for small businesses. Corporate rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including at major retailers like Target, have created new uncertainty around distribution, visibility and consumer demand for Black-owned brands. At the same time, President Donald Trump’s trade war has driven up costs through steep tariffs on top trading partners, squeezing margins for founders who rely on overseas manufacturing.

 

Against that backdrop, Essence has launched WeLoveUs.shop, a new online marketplace dedicated to Black women-led brands. The platform, which officially launched earlier this month, aims to give founders an alternative sales channel at a moment when the larger retail industry has become more volatile. WeLoveUs.shop currently features about 100 brands and 1,000 products across categories like beauty, wellness, fashion and home, with more than 400 additional brands expressing interest in joining future cohorts, according to Essence.

 

The idea for WeLoveUs.shop crystallized earlier this year as the toll on Black women in business became increasingly clear, Michele Ghee, Essence’s chief content officer, told Modern Retail. Since February, nearly 600,000 Black women have been sidelined by job losses and unemployment, according to Fortune. That reality, combined with rising costs from tariffs and shrinking opportunities tied to DEI rollbacks, made the launch of WeLoveUs.shop feel urgent. It was “all hands on deck” to get the marketplace up and running as quickly as possible, with key executives and stakeholders even working over Thanksgiving. The site quietly launched in beta just after Thanksgiving, before a wider public rollout around Cyber Monday.

 

“We know so many businesses are hurting right now,” said Ghee. “Nobody is immune to what is happening in the world today, especially for marginalized communities.”

 

For Stirrup, the consumer backlash against Target made it harder for her to promote Kazmaleje’s products at the retailer. “There was a lot of pushback, especially on social media, and you couldn’t really talk about being in [Target],” she said. “That limits you from being able to advertise, because we were getting the response of, ‘We’re not shopping there.’”

 

On an earnings call in May, Target CEO Brian Cornell said the company’s first-quarter performance was dented by several factors, including “the reaction to the updates we shared on belonging in January.” He also flagged tariff uncertainty and declining consumer confidence as other headwinds. He added, “While we believe each of these factors played a role in our first quarter performance, we can’t reliably estimate the impact of each one separately.”

 

The boycott against Target underscored the risk of relying too heavily on any one channel, making WeLoveUs.shop an attractive opportunity. “You really have to have a diverse revenue stream because you never know how the market will impact you,” she said.

 

This year has also been tough for small business owners because of tariffs, which have raised costs for founders importing materials or finished goods. For Brittny Horne, founder of RVL Wellness Co., tariffs have significantly constrained growth. RVL makes therapeutic jigsaw puzzles, and the brand’s products are entirely manufactured in China, one of the most heavily tariffed countries.

 

Tariffs “definitely slowed down our production of new products,” Horne said. “It’s just one of those things — another issue we have to try to navigate and figure out a solution.”

 

Horne said she explored moving production to the U.S., but quickly ran into cost barriers. “It’s way more expensive to manufacture in the U.S., especially unless you are ordering at least 5,000 units per SKU,” she said. With 11 SKUs in her lineup, she said, “There’s no way we could afford that much at this time.”

 

The uncertainty has forced her to rethink where and how RVL can grow. “It just kind of makes you now have to rethink, ‘OK, well, what do we look forward to next?’” she said. “‘Where’s a safe space for us to go?’”

 

That led to Horne’s decision to join WeLoveUs.shop, which has led to a “really big boost” in sales since the marketplace launched at the beginning of the month. Even though it’s only been a couple of weeks since the partnership began, the majority of RVL’s orders are now coming from WeLoveUs.shop, Horne said.

 

WeLoveUs.shop takes a 35% commission per transaction. That’s higher than what other marketplaces charge. Amazon, for example, takes a cut ranging from 8-15% per transaction, depending on the product category. But Amazon also charges sellers for other services, including advertising and fulfillment. In exchange for WeLoveUs.shop’s 35% commission rate, brands gain access not just to Essence’s audience but also to its full media ecosystem, including editorial coverage, social promotion, newsletters and PR support. Other brands that spoke to Modern Retail for this story said WeLoveUs.shop’s bi-weekly payouts were also more appealing than the 90- to 120-day payment cycles common in wholesale and consignment arrangements.

 

WeLoveUs.shop is gaining traction on social media, according to Essence’s Ghee, who said Essence has leaned heavily on its existing audience and distribution muscle to promote the marketplace. Essence reaches about 75 million touchpoints each month across its digital platforms, she said, and has been using a mix of curated gift guides, newsletters and social posts to drive attention to the new shop. One recent gift guide featuring products priced under $50 generated about 10,000 impressions within the first few days, Ghee said. In another example, a social post encouraging followers to “tag a Black business” was shared roughly 5,000 times in a similarly short period.

 

“For [Essence] to be able to put their media power behind more Black-owned brands at a time of great need, when small incomes are struggling, can really support them,” said Sky Canaves, a principal retail analyst at eMarketer.

 

Melissa Mitchell, a self-taught designer who sells accessories, apparel and home decor and more through her brand Abeille Creations, echoed that sentiment. “This year has been very up and down,” she said. “With this kind of partnership, this allows me to reach people that I probably would never have on my own.”

17292: There Is No DEIBA+ In AICP…?

 

Not sure how to fully interpret the post depicted above.

 

The VP, Equity & Inclusion at AICP yesterday announced: Today is a sad day. I just learned that the AICP (Association of Independent Commercial Producers) and the #AICP National Board have decided to join the ranks of #Target, #McDonalds, #JohnDeere, etc. in eliminating their intentional efforts to improve diversity in the #advertising and #commercialproduction areas. First the suspension of the #CDDP, the #Diverse #Directors program with the Directors Guild of America, and now eliminating the #Equity and #Inclusion position.

 

So, the AICP dismantled its heat shields and dismissed its Human Heat Shield—after only roughly three years?

 

Did anyone throw a wrap party?

 

Congratulations, AICP—you just accelerated the employment challenges faced by US Black women too.

17265: Black Women Friday.

 

The Associated Press reported on the disproportionate unemployment challenges experienced by US Black women.

 

Can’t help but wonder how worse things are for all the Dawn Chambers in Adland, who have historically been underutilized, underpaid, and underrepresented—a situation compounded by the anti-DEIBA+ vibe impacting the industry and society at large.

 

 

As Black women face unemployment challenges, a roundtable of policymakers searches for solutions

 

By Matt Brown

 

In a packed room at library in a downtown Boston, Rep. Ayanna Pressley posed a blunt question: Why are Black women, who have some of the highest labor force participation rates in the country, now seeing their unemployment rise faster than most other groups?

The replies Monday from policymakers, academics, business owners and community organizers laid out how economic headwinds facing Black women may indicate a troubling shift for the economy at large.

 

The unemployment rate for Black women increased from 6.7% to 7.5% between August and September this year, the most recent month for available data because of the federal government shutdown.

 

That compares with a 3.2% to 3.4% increase for white women over the same period. And it extended a year-long trend of the Black women’s unemployment rate increasing at a time of broad economic uncertainty.

 

Many roundtable attendees view those numbers as both an affront and a warning about the uneven pressures on Black women.

 

“Everyone is missing out when we’re pushed out of the workforce,” said Pressley, a progressive Democrat. “That is something that I worry about now, that you have all these women with specific expertise and specializations that we’re being deprived of.”

 

And when Black women do have work, she said they tend to be “woefully underemployed.”

 

Black women had the highest labor force participation rate of any female demographic in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, yet their unemployment rate remains higher than other demographics of women.

 

Historically, their unemployment rate has trended slightly above the national average, widening during periods of slowed economic growth or recession. Black Americans are overrepresented in industries like retail, health and social services, and government administration, according to a 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey.

 

“Black women are at the center of the Venn diagram that is our society,” said Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, a PhD candidate in public policy and economics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

 

She pointed to April as the month when Black women’s unemployment began to diverge more sharply from other groups. A policy agenda that ignores the causes, she said, could harm the broader economy.

 

Roundtable participants cited many long-standing structural inequities but attributed most of the latest divergence to recent federal actions. They blamed the Trump administration’s downsizing of the Minority Business Development Agency and the cancellation of some federal contracts with non-profits and small businesses, saying those actions disproportionately impacted Black women. Others said tariff policies and mass federal layoffs also contributed to the strain.

 

The administration’s opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives was repeatedly mentioned by participants as a cause for a more hostile environment for Black women to find employment, customers or government contracting.

 

There is no concrete data on how many Black federal workers were laid off, fired or otherwise dismissed as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts through the federal government.

 

The attendees discussed a wide range of potential solutions to the unemployment rate for Black women, including using state budgets to bolster business development for Black women, expanding microloans to different communities, increasing government resources for contracting, requiring greater transparency on corporate hiring practices and encouraging state and federal officials to enforce anti-discrimination policies.

 

“I feel like I was just at church,” said Ruthzee Louijeune, the Boston City Council president, as the meeting wrapped up. She encouraged attendees to keep up their efforts, and she defended DEI policies as essential to a healthy workforce and political system. Without broad-based efforts, the Democrat said, the country’s business and political leadership would be “abnormal” and weakened.

 

“Any space that does not look like our country and like our cities is not normal,” she said, “and not the city or country we are trying to build.”

17188: On The Hard, Harder, And Hardest Job In Adland.

Mediapsssst published content spotlighting a podcast episode where ID Comms executives discussed WPP CEO Cindy Rose and ultimately declared, “If there is a harder job in Adland I can’t think of one.”

 

First, who gives a rat’s ass about the opinions of anyone from ID Comms?

 

Second, does Rose really hold the hardest job in Adland?

 

After all, she spent years on the WPP board—albeit in a non-executive role. While Rose might not have had a direct line of sight into the White holding company’s true troubles, it’s safe to say she took the job with eyes wide open. Surely, she didn’t land the top position totally blind to the flaming dumpster’s dysfunctions, dilemmas, and dire straits.

 

Besides, there are harder jobs in Adland.

 

Chief Diversity Officer at White advertising agencies in these anti-DEIBA+ times can’t be easy. Now, more than ever, it’s hard out here for a pimp.

 

Black women probably still have it harder in Adland.

 

Hell, the thousands of drones toiling at WPP and other White holding companies—whose livelihoods could be eliminated at any moment without warning—arguably hold harder jobs.

 

Sorry, Rose can’t even compete with the hardest-working man in Black advertising.

The Hardest Job In Adland Right Now

 

By Richard Whitman

 

“If there is a harder job in Adland I can’t think of one.” That’s how ID Comms co-founder Tom Denford (in the latest edition of the company’s podcast MediaSnack) described the post of WPP CEO, newly filled by Cindy Rose who succeeded Mark Read on Sept. 1. 

 

In the podcast Denford and his fellow ID Comms co-founder David Indo give their take on the challenges facing Rose as she tries to revitalize the company in the months ahead. 

 

It’s been a very bumpy year for the holding company. In that time it has shed half of its share price and about 7,000 jobs, Denford noted.  

 

And as he pointed out, Rose has yet to lay out her strategic vision for the company (at least to the outside world). Which prompts the question: What does the firm’s board of directors want her to do, transform the company into a thriving competitor of main cohorts like Publicis and Omnicom or package the firm up for sale? 

 

“She understands the challenges and has a formidable reputation as a transformation expert,” said Indo.  

 

WPP is a “silo-cultured company,” with “big fiefdoms,” Denford asserts. There is, he added, “a lot of tension between creative and media” divisions within the firm. To compete more effectively, Rose needs to “build a community internally to carry out the vision as a team.” Case in point, he said, is Publicis Groupe, which has done that effectively with its “Power Of One” approach. 

 

If there’s one thing Rose wants to do in the near term, said Indo, it’s keep existing clients “very happy.” Which is why clients at the holding company may want to “recalibrate terms and talent” with their current agencies.