Every gesture towards better consumer choices is a move in the right direction
More than ever, brands are being asked to state – and act on – their ethical values and being called out on their flaws. It’s a positive move towards more responsible, sustainable consumer choices but, at the same time, I don’t feel that something must be either perfect or worthless. A product can be high-quality, cruelty-free, bee-friendly, aesthetically pleasing and made by a social enterprise scheme that directly benefits its vision-impaired employees (The Soap Co, for example), and naysayers will immediately call out its use of plastic bottles (it is working on alternatives) as though everything is now ruined. Conversely, a cash-rich megabrand will escape censure because it’s not even trying to be better.
I take the view that every gesture is a move in the right direction. I’ve also spent enough time writing about the beauty industry to know that if consumers don’t make ethical business practices profitable, then companies will cease to initiate them.
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