The face of capitalism with a conscience

Date: 05/12/1996

By Simon Coss

“If you want to get rid of wrinkles, never smile again.”

This is just one of a relentless stream of media-friendly one-liners which spring from the lips of Anita Roddick, the iconoclastic head of The Body Shop, arguably the world's most famous purveyor of animal-friendly beauty products.

Ten years ago, Roddick opened a small shop on the south coast of England. Her empire now spans 45 countries world-wide and includes an estimated 1,400 retail outlets.

According to Roddick, The Body Shop's phenomenal success boils down to one essential concept: honesty.

“We do not believe creams can take away wrinkles. A woman cannot put a product on her breasts and they will grow, or on her thighs and they will get thinner. We never say a cream can do any more than clean, polish or protect the skin and hair,” she says.

The curly-haired capitalist-with-a-conscience slams competitors in the traditional beauty industry for selling products on a pseudo-medical platform.

“They have to pretend to be a pharmaceutical industry because in reality every moisture cream works. Instead of saying, like we do, any cream would work, but use this one because it has fun ingredients or because we collected it from a cooperative, they claim their product will do something for you, make you thinner, take away wrinkles, slow down the ageing process, or whatever,” she admonishes.

Roddick also attacks the make-up giants for trying to force unrealistic concepts of beauty on women.

“My age group, the 45- to 55-year-olds, is now the largest in Europe and the way they are selling to us is to make us afraid of our wrinkles. They display their product against an airbrushed picture of a 20-year-old, implying the way to get her looks is to buy this cream,” she says. “We have never done that. We have never tried to fashion a whole profit line through diminishing women, their bodies and their ageing process.”

But The Body Shop's most famous selling point is its legendary 'animal friendly' stance. The organisation has consistently sold its products under the slogan 'Against Animal Testing' and Roddick is currently spearheading a Europe-wide campaign to ensure animal tests are banned throughout the EU by 1998.

She argues that not only are animal tests cruel and immoral, but also that they have never been proven to be particularly effective.

“What is bizarre and ironic is that no animal testing has ever been validated. There are better alternatives available such as cell culture tests or in vitro tests. Animals are not humans and they often react differently when tested,” she argues.

Nevertheless, The Body Shop has come in for fierce criticism over its stand on animal testing.

The European Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association (Colipa), which represents many major beauty companies, said in a recent open letter to members of the European Parliament: “It may be of interest for you to know that The Body Shop also uses chemical ingredients which have been tested on animals ... Indeed, a franchisee of The Body Shop was prosecuted for implying through its advertising that it differs on this issue from the traditional cosmetics industry (247/90, 17 May 1990: Regional Court Düsseldorf).”

To be fair to Roddick, most basic products used in the cosmetics industry have at some time been tested on animals. But The Body Shop has a publicly-stated policy of using no ingredients tested on animals after 1990. Roddick feels her company is being victimised by the beauty giants and is also being sidelined by the European Commission over the test-ban campaign.

“The cosmetic industry is one of the nastiest industries in the world. It has huge power. It creates all of its own PR through these sultans of sleaze. They are the ones that the Commission listens to, not the alternative scientists,” she maintains.

If a petition presented by The Body Shop and various other animal rights groups to the Commission last week is to be believed, 4 million Europeans want to see an end to tests altogether.

Roddick argues that the petition shows the depth of feeling across the EU over the issue. What Europe's citizens are crying out for more than anything else, she says, is information.

“If I was a consumer who wanted to make a moral shopping choice, I would want to know if an ingredient had been tested or not. All we are saying is: let the public know. Let the public choose.”

Despite The Body Shop's remarkable success and her personal status as the self-appointed caring face of commerce, Roddick still seems to have at least part of one foot on the ground.

“At the end of the day, we are just selling shampoo,” she muses.