A beauty retailer taking a stand against discrimination based on physical appearance: the move is surprising coming from a sector whose business model has historically rested on the promise of transforming precisely that appearance. Yet this is the bet Sephora is making with Project Hearts Not Hate, its first major worldwide initiative on the subject, launched on the occasion of World Mental Health Day on 10 October. Linking a date dedicated to mental health to a subject as specific as appearance-based discrimination is not obvious either: it implicitly means acknowledging the link between the two — and moving the question of appearance out of the purely aesthetic register and into the broader one of psychological well-being.
The initiative draws on a study conducted by Ipsos in ten countries among 20,001 people, whose results give the measure of the problem: 7 in 10 adults say they have already been victims of discrimination or judgement because of their appearance, while 81% acknowledge that they do not always know how to react when they witness it. It is precisely on this last figure that Sephora has chosen to act.
To support this awareness, the retailer is partnering with the NGO Right To Be to create SEPHORA H.E.A.R.T.S., an exclusive training designed to give bystanders and allies the tools to prevent, identify and respond to these situations. Rather than addressing only those directly targeted by discrimination, the initiative therefore primarily targets those around them — colleagues, friends, strangers who witness a scene — betting that the silence of bystanders weighs as much as the act itself. To mark the launch, Sephora will make a donation to Right To Be as well as to local associations.
Choosing to partner with an NGO specialising in bystander training, rather than developing an in-house programme, allows Sephora to rely on an already proven methodology rather than improvising its own response to such a sensitive subject. It is a caution that contrasts with the temptation, common among large retailers, to build their own awareness tools alone, without outside expertise.
The contrast remains striking nonetheless: an industry that lives off the promise of improving appearance chooses to fund training against judgement based on that very appearance. One can see in it a comfortable contradiction, or on the contrary a form of assumed responsibility — that of a player which, occupying a central position in how people look at themselves and at others, chooses to act on the most toxic effects of that centrality rather than ignore them.
It remains to be seen whether Project Hearts Not Hate will go beyond the framework of a one-off communication around a symbolic date and become established over time on a par with the brand’s product campaigns — the only horizon that would make it possible to judge whether the initiative really changes anything, beyond the gesture. Describing this training as a “first major worldwide initiative” sets the bar high from the outset: a promise that commits the brand to documenting, over time, the concrete effects of this programme rather than settling for a publicised launch around 10 October.
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