The road to acceptance in society is paved with little things that make people stop and think. Like bandage plasters. Tesco has become the first major retailer in the UK to stock a more diverse range of skin tone plasters, available in light, medium and dark tones. Tesco hopes it will encourage other retailers to follow suit.

BBH is helping that stop and think impact, with a print campaign that will run in press and digital OOH for the next two weeks. The campaign launched in the Evening Standard and Metro on February 24.

BBH London creative director, Uche Ezugwu, commented, “The UK’s biggest retailer has just moved the dial on something that needed to change. We created a campaign that is bold and visually impactful, hopefully making it hard to ignore.”

Tesco developed the plasters after a colleague spotted a now-viral tweet, which described the emotional response one man had the first time he used a plaster that matched his skin tone.

It’s taken me 45 trips around the sun, but for the first time in my life I know what it feels like to have a “band-aid” in my own skin tone. You can barely even spot it in the first image. For real I’m holding back tears. pic.twitter.com/GZR7hRBkJf

— Dominique Apollon (@ApollonTweets) April 19, 2019

The tweet trigger a deluge of comments from other Twitter users, highlighting how significant the issue of representative plaster tones is for those in Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. The product idea was quickly brought to the attention of senior members of the Tesco team and it was then fast-tracked to launch.

The development of the new plasters was also supported by the BAME at Tesco internal colleague network, which believes this is a real opportunity to make a difference in the lives of customers. The BAME at Tesco network aims to make a positive impact on colleagues and customers by raising awareness of diversity, culture and inclusion within Tesco. They contributed to the project by coordinating testing the product with colleagues and gathering feedback, as well as having a say in the final design of the product.

Paulette Balson, chair of the BAME at Tesco network, commented, “One of the main objectives of our network is to help Tesco better serve our customers from all backgrounds and communities. No UK supermarket had ever stocked plasters in a range of skin tones before and we saw this as an opportunity for Tesco to lead the charge and make a genuine difference. Through our research within the network, we know how emotive a product like this can be. For example, one colleague reported that their child had felt self-conscious wearing a plaster on their face to school recently, because it didn’t match their skin tone and stood out.”

Nicola Robinson, health, beauty and wellness director at Tesco, added, “Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and we continually review our products and services to best meet their needs. As one of the largest retailers in the UK, we also understand that we have a responsibility to ensure our products reflect the diversity of our customers and colleagues. We believe the launch of our new skin tone plaster range is an important step and a move that we hope will be replicated by other retailers and supermarkets across the country.”

Credits:

Agency: BBH London

Creative Directors: Uche Ezugwu & Tom Drew

Creative Team: Dan Seagar & Steve Hall

Head of Art: Pablo Gonzalez De La Peña

Art Producer: Ruth Armitt

Designer: Rob Wilson

Strategist: Thandi Mbire

Strategy Director: Margherita Tuvo

Business Lead: Patrick Netherton

Account Director: Matt Sims & Aymara Blanco

Account Manager:  Zoë Harris

Photographer: Emily Stein

Agent: Wyatt-Clarke & Jones

PR agency: Splendid

Media agency: Mediacom

Client: Tesco

Group Marketing Communications Director: Emma Botton

Head of Consumer PR: Sarah Parmar