The holiday season is fast approaching, which means we are being bombarded with a host of beautiful and creative beauty brand Christmas campaigns to help us look our best, and make our holiday gifting a little easier. But YSL have taken a different approach to their winter advertising campaign, choosing instead to promote their latest collaboration ‘Abuse is Not Love’. This is a global program designed to combat intimate partner violence which has been launched in association with non-profit partnerships.
An important campaign with an important message, YSL pledges to fund academic research, train its employees, and educate two million people on the perils of Intimate Partner Violence through the campaign. An incredible one in three women will experience some form of Intimate Partner Violence in their lifetime, and it is empowering that Yves Saint Laurent is choosing to give these women such wide spread visibility, and a great platform for their voices to be heard. The first stage of the new initiative seeks to raise awareness about the nine key warning signs that you are in an abusive intimate relationship such as being ignored, being blackmailed, or dealing with intimidation.
In a statement on their website, the Yves Saint Laurent beauty team announced that “Women’s freedom has always been at the heart of the brand. Women, just as everyone, should be free to be whomever they want to be and free to do and think as they wish. Intimate partner violence threatens this safety and freedom. And yet, it’s very common for abusive behavior to be wrongly justified as ‘love’.”
The brand may not be promoting beauty products, but this campaign is still an incredibly beautiful one. After all, what is more beautiful than a brand that wants women to be free, safe, and happy?
