Young People Declare They ‘Will Not Be Deleted’ by Cyberbullying in Rimmel Film
Rimmel has launched the brand’s hero film to mark the start of the global #IWILLNOTBEDELETED campaign aimed at combatting the issue of beauty cyberbullying.
The emotive film, created by BETC London and directed by Nez through Pulse Films, features a number of young people who have had first hand experience of the negative effects of beauty cyberbullying. They are supported by Rimmel global brand ambassadors Rita Ora and Cara Delevingne sharing their own authentic stories of being on the receiving end of beauty cyberbullying.
The campaign is an integral part of global beauty company Coty’s ongoing commitment to tackle the prejudice and discrimination that stand in the way of self-expression – based on gender, sexual orientation, disability and ethnicity – and to celebrate and liberate the diversity of consumers’ beauty.
Rimmel is about championing self-expression in beauty and has always been against narrow definitions of beauty and people being judged because of the way they look.
The film, released today to coincide with the start of Anti-Bullying Week 2018, includes the accounts of many of the young people from all corners of the globe who have been central to the development of the #IWILLNOTBEDELETED campaign.
Some of the stand-out stories included in the campaign hero video include:
- Tess Daly - a beauty blogger and aspiring fashion designer from Sheffield who has received hateful comments online linked to her disability
- Eden - Eden is a UK-based model originally from Birmingham. As a young woman growing up and experimenting with social media, Eden used to receive hurtful comments telling her to bleach her skin, leading her to delete social media posts. She is now empowered to celebrate the uniqueness of her beauty.
- Ascia Al Faraj - Ascia is an American-Kuwaiti blogger, entrepreneur, model, and fashion designer. Ascia has faced bullying relating to her decision to break cultural beauty norms. Her piercings and tattoos have led her to be ostracised in some quarters for not representing Arab cultural norms.
The #IWILLNOTBEDELETED campaign will see Rimmel partner with the multi award-winning anti-cyberbullying non-profit organisation, The Cybersmile Foundation.
Rimmel will work with Cybersmile to tackle the societal issues that stop people of all ages from feeling unable to fully express themselves on social media due to fear of negative commentary or retribution.
As part of this long term partnership, Rimmel will work with Cybersmile to create The Cybersmile Assistant, a state-of-the-art AI-driven tool that will be available for all visitors to the Cybersmile website from across the globe. Set to launch in early 2019, this ground-breaking virtual assistant will be rolled out in several languages and recommend approved local resources, helplines and organisations that can help those affected by beauty cyberbullying.
Rimmel has also published a white paper – Beauty Cyberbullying – Expression Repression which highlights the global impact of beauty cyberbullying. The white paper spoke to over 11,000 women aged 16-25 and discovered that beauty cyberbullying is a growing global issue. Some of the facts it discovered include:
- 1 in 4 women have experienced beauty cyberbullying
- 46% of women who have experienced cyberbullying have self-harmed either through an eating disorder, substance abuse or physical self-harm
- 57% of women who have experienced cyberbullying didn’t tell anyone and suffered in silence
- 54 of women have bullying behaviour on their mind when they’re about to post something online
- 32% have closed a social media account and 22% have deleted an image due to cyberbullying
- 115 million images are deleted each year as a result of cyberbullying
Rosie Bardales, BETC London Chief Creative Officer and Partner said: “Rimmel is a brand that believes everyone should be able to fearlessly express and be themselves, without fear of judgement, criticism, or shame. That’s why they commissioned a global study to investigate the problem, revealing that, last year alone, 115 million images were deleted from social media because of beauty cyberbullying. Realising the full scale of the problem, we created an awareness campaign focused around giving its real victims a voice."
"But every cyberbullying story is different. So, for this campaign, we cast fourteen real people from across the world, each one with their own experience to tell.
"Hearing these stories, and feeling passionately about our cause, campaign ambassadors Cara Delevingne and Rita Ora helped amplify our cast’s voices further by using their platforms to bring the problem of beauty cyberbullying to the public’s attention.
"We captured the essence of many of our cast’s stories in our hero film, encouraging viewers to learn more via our campaign hub where they could discover film content that explores their experiences on a deeper level."
Sara Wolverson, Vice President of Rimmel Global Marketing, Coty, commented: ‘The release of our film to mark the start of the global #IWILLNOTBEDELETED campaign is a hugely exciting moment for everyone that has been involved thus far.
At Rimmel, we have a clear purpose as a brand to inspire people to experiment and express themselves through make-up. Beauty cyberbullying is on the rise and the white paper that we publish today includes some truly shocking findings.
We launch our global campaign today to give a voice to people who have been beauty cyberbullied and we offer them this platform to tell their stories
We believe by through sharing this film and delivering this campaign, we will raise global awareness of this issue. Our partnership with The Cybersmile Foundation is an integral part of ambition to find solutions to some of these global issues.”
Scott Freeman, CEO, The Cybersmile Foundation, said: “We’re very excited to be working with Rimmel as part of the #IWILLNOTBEDELETED campaign. The research has highlighted how big an issue beauty cyberbullying is among young women and we’re confident that The Cybersmile Assistant will play an active role in addressing these concerns’
The #IWILLNOTBEDELETED campaign launches globally as of Monday, November 12th.
