Billie's viral ad is encouraging women to grow their 'moustaches' this Movember
Billie's ad featuring women with facial hair is encouraging women to join the Movember campaign that helps raise awareness about men's health. Billie is helping normalise body hair and encouraging women to shave as a choice, and not as a condition.
American razor brand Billie’s ad for Movember is going viral online. The ad is asking women to embrace their facial hair and letting their ‘staches grow. Movember is the month long annual event to raise awareness about men’s health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and suicide.
Billie, an indie direct consumer brand is breaking away from normal notions of body hair and changing the conversation around body hair being displeasing.
The ad begins with thought-provoking statements and showing women with hair above their upper lip.
"Newsflash: women have moustaches. We’ve been trained to hide them wax them, bleach them, shave them but that doesn’t make them any less real. Fuzzy and faint or dark and dazzling, they’re there. So this Movember, we’re growing out our (formerly) top secret upper lip hair.” Women in the ad are celebrating their facial hair by putting mascara on it, combing it, styling it with brow gel and putting on bright lipsticks to highlight their stache.
"Of all the places women grow hair, the upper lip seems to be the one most rarely talked about and the most taboo," Co-founder Georgina Gooley said in a statement. "We're excited to make it the hero of our latest campaign and put our hair to good use in the name of a good cause."
Billie is a shaving brand and encouraging body hair may in fact go against them. Georgina in an interview stated that not depicting women with body hair, or promoting hairless bodies, would also comprise as body shaming and promoting an unrealistic beauty standard. She added that the company did not want to be a part of that conversation.
“Shaving is a personal choice, and no one should be telling women what to do with their hair. The fact is, we all have body hair. Some of us choose to remove it, and some of us choose to wear it proudly — and either way, we shouldn’t have to apologise for our choice,” says Georgina Gooley.
Billie is raising money for prostate and testicular cancer awareness, mental health, and suicide prevention. It has also vowed to match 100 percent of contributions to its Team Billie Movember campaign up to $50,000, according to a press release.
Billie is also the first women’s razor brand to participate in Movember and to show women with facial hair in an ad. It has a history of starting conversations and normalising conversations around body hair. Earlier this year, the company launched another campaign showing women’s pubic hair, for which it received widespread praise.
(Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan)
