PEOPLE: anita roddick

The news reports started barely hours after she passed—a late night bulletin flashed across my television screen on the evening of September 10th 2007. I remembered slogans such as “There are only 8 supermodels”.

I remembered my first experiences with recycling—taking back my bottles & dropping them in the designated box. I recalled a shop where I could just accept that their products were never tested on animals – period. I remembered boycotts and outrage and protests, when her company was sold to the bad guys - but those headlines were bigger than the news of her passing, because so few of us knew who she actually was. Her name was Anita Roddick, she founded The Body Shop, but before the 10th of September, I could never remember her name without looking it up.

You might not have known her name either, but hopefully you’ll never forget her messages … and I think she’d be just fine with that.

The impact Anita had on our world is immeasurable, but is summed up neatly and perfectly by her partner Gordon in a post on her website,  “A piece of Anita is in that part of you that reads a label to find out if your mascara was tested on rabbits, or your lotion contains organic, fairly traded ingredients. Anita is in that part of you that says “I’m beautiful the way I am.” She is in that part of you that thinks “I have a great, crazy idea, and I’m going to make it a reality.”

Roddick said “for me, campaigning and good business is also about putting forward solutions, not just opposing destructive practices or human rights abuses.”  This principal saw her turn a modest income into a global movement, the store that stood for more than selling soap and body butters for profit. If we were going to consume beauty products in rediculous quantities, she wanted us to at least recycle and use cruelty free ingredients, providing us with the outlet to do so.

THE BODY SHOP Philosophy

Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop in 1976 in a humble store in London, simply as a way to make money to support her young family. Today, The Body Shop has over 2000 stores with products in 25 different languages. Their entire range of products is guaranteed to be 100% cruelty free, with absolutely none of the elements tested on animals, showing other companies its profitable to be kind.

Roddick also spearheaded many campaigns through The Body Shop that were as controversial as they were successful. During the 1980s, Roddick joined many environmental awareness campaigns, such as Greenpeace’s attempts to end whaling in 1986. She also ran her own environmental campaigns—one that collected over 4 million signatures through The Body Shop stores against animal testing in the cosmetics industry.

Her ability to be outraged to the point of action drove her to turn the modest store in London into a global empire that introduced other beauty companies to the value of the green dollar. She showed that while 1 person may not be able to change the world, they can make a really good start with campaigns that raised awareness and inspired discussion.

The Body Shop firmly states their philosophy on their website today, the influence of its founder evident in the strong community values. “We believe every woman has the right to feel fabulous. We believe everyone has the right to earn a fair wage for their hard work, that child labour should be abolished, that amazing natural ingredients should be celebrated, not plundered, and that no animal should be tested on for cosmetic purposes. These beliefs form our five company Values.”

• Against Animal Testing
• Support Community Trade
• Activate Self Esteem
• Defend Human Rights
• Protect Our Planet

Fashion and Body Image

Like almost every teen girl, I read Dolly—and the messages from The Body Shop balanced out the superficial and often damaging messages of these commercially driven Fashion Magazines. In 1997 the “Ruby” campaign was as much about promoting self esteem as it was about promoting The Body Shop.

The campaign was banned in America, China, and a host of other countries who found it offensive to see a nude, round, Barbie doll. Its release was swiftly followed by a lawsuit from Mattel who thought it would disturb people to see a fat Barbie. “There are over 3 billion women who don’t look like supermodels and only 8 who do” - it is a campaign that stuck with a generation of women, with t-shirts of every size baring the slogan across breasts of every age.  

Anita famously stated in her auto-biography  "I hate the beauty business. It is a monster industry selling unattainable dreams. It lies. It cheats. It exploits women." She may have hated the very thing that allowed her to pursue her passions, but she never claimed she knew what she was doing when it came to business.

The Business Woman

When Roddick sold her share in The Body Shop to cruel cosmetics giant, Loreal, the public was outraged. Long term fans turned on both the brand and the woman, outraged at the $125m she received for her share – despite her pledging the entire amount for her charitable affairs.

Anita writes candidly in a March 2006 entry on her website about the ‘sell out’ that saw consumers passionately turn on the brand they had supported for almost 30 years, with protests and picket lines outside Body Shop stores the world over. For most of us, watching our business lose its customer base would be devastating, but Anita Roddick used it as fuel for her fire … energy to continue her journey, inspiring change from the inside out.

However when she talks of her biggest mistake, she believes it was the company’s move into the Stock Market that posed more danger to their mission. In contrast to the relationship with Loreal, where she genuinely believed she could change their practices, she admits that going public nearly lost her the ability to control the ethics of the business without the share price being affected.

For a lifelong activist, losing the ability to make ethical decisions which followed her philosophy seemed to have the effect of caging a wild bird. She started the business with the freedom to make the best choices for people and the planet, but with the stockmarket share price affecting every decision Anita felt trapped.

Roddick claimed vehemently in her auto-biography, in interviews and on her website that she was an activist, not a business woman. After her unsuccessful venture into the stock market she was looking for a place to offload the business so she could continue, uninterrupted, to work as an activist. In her usual, eternally outraged style she set about selling up … then pressuring the buyer for their own lack of ethical practices.

The push for change

Loreal continues to refuse to make any form of solid, legitimate commitment to ending animal testing of the ingredients used in their products, but they pay wonderful lipservice to the cause and claim they are developing alternatives. Roddick claimed before her death that they had begun to accept free trade, but there’s little evidence to suggest this company intends to do any more to end animal abuse.

The corporate giant stated on one occasion, that they expect it to be at least 20 years before there is an end to their cruel testing practices - but mostly they are just silent on the subject, refusing to outline their position on animal testing.

In an interview not long before her death, Roddick talked about the changes she had been able to inspire within the company simply by showing them how The Body Shop built up a profitable base of 77 million customers without animal testing or exploitation. We love the philosophy and hold the highest hopes for a better future, but we wonder if she had enough time to spread her magic in such a sterile, power hungry world.

Before Roddick passed in September 2007, she claimed she had begun to successfully infect and infiltrate the Loreal brand with ‘Community Trade’ – the principal that so much of The Body Shop and her activism were built upon. By purchasing products from areas that are rich in renewable resources—while still allowing communities to live without intrusion—The Body Shop has made significant changes in how the world does business and how we, as consumers, shop!

Loreal produces product lines such as Cacharel, Garnier, Giorgio Armani, Helena
Rubinstein, Lancôme, Matrix Essentials, Maybelline, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, Redken, Soft Sheen and Vichy. When the United Kingdom banned all animal testing in the cosmetics industry Loreal moved their production to countries like America and Japan, who don’t have laws against animal testing.

There are also no laws, in the UK or elsewhere, against selling finished products which have been tested on animals and there is no legislation that forces companies to disclose truthful information on their labels, allowing corporate giants like Loreal to continue to make money from animal cruelty.

If Roddick had lived long enough we have no doubt she could have changed the way Loreal and other companies do business – and that would have been an exceptional achievement.

Productive, Constructive Action

Anita Roddick is quoted everywhere as saying “Just do Something”. We could interpret this as encouragement to boycott The Body Shop now that they are partly owned by the bad guy. Or we could choose to see it as inspiration to continue campaigning against companies like Loreal who insist on using cruel testing practices despite having so many alternatives available to them.

We may not agree with the principles or purposes behind the sale of one of the world’s most influential companies, but choosing to boycott an organisation with animal friendly practices due to a parent company that doesn’t, seems counter productive to the decades of work from Anita Roddick and her team.

Confusing consumers is simply going to drive them to other products, or sadly stop us from bothering to check the label before we buy, putting the funds back into the pockets of those we want to change at the expense of those who are doing what we are asking others for. Sounds confusing huh? Let me explain …

Boycotting a company that has and continues to campaign for animal rights causes AND practice what they preach is both short sighted and anti-productive. If you are passionate about animals, support the companies that refuse to harm them in any way for commercial gain to help prove that ethical business practices can be profitable.

Save your energy to learn, speak, educate, understand, campaign, suggest, improve and boycott the companies that refuse to stop their cruel practices. Take constructive action by thinking about the consequences of your choices – look beyond the first step and ask yourself “How is what I’m doing contributing to a positive evolution?”

But perhaps Anita, the eternal activist, might prefer a R-evolution …

QUOTES

• If I can't do something for the public good, what the hell am I doing?
  
  
• Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Economic necessity
  
  
• For me, campaigning and good business is also about putting forward solutions, not just opposing destructive practices or human rights abuses.
  
  
• To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality.
  
  
• If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.
  
  
• If I had learned more about business ahead of time, I would have been shaped into believing that it was only about finances and quality management.
  
  
• If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just.
  
  
• Since the governments are in the pockets of businesses, who's going to control this most powerful institution? Business is more powerful than politics, and it's more powerful than religion. So it's going to have to be the vigilante consumer.

Anita Roddick

She founded The Body Shop & spearheaded campaigns against Animal Testing that many of us grew up with. The activist passed in September of this year, only a few years after the controversial sale to cosmetics giant, Loreal, that saw her lifes work boycotted by those that built it.

- Anita Roddick
- The Body Shop
- Peta.org

If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.