Priest calls out shampoo brand for sexist marketing

A priest-teacher from the United Kingdom wasn’t pleased with one shampoo brand’s alleged blatant sexist marketing and used the power of social media to voice out his grievances. Reverend Philip Green took to his Twitter page last July 7 to boycott Radox, a brand of personal care products owned by Unilever, after being dismayed by the way the brand supposedly used sexist labels in its men’s shower gels.

“Hi @RadoxUK, fyi my wife and daughters are sporty, heroic, powerful & strong,” wrote the 49-year-old Rev. Green who is an associate priest of Self-Supporting Ministry (SSM).

“Won’t be buying [your] products until the ‘men’ is removed from these labels,” Rev. Green continued to write. “@Sainsburys please stop selling them… #everydaysexism #thesegirlscan.”

Rev. Green’s photo showed a snap of the various men’s shower gels Radox offers. The shower gels were tagged with labels such as “sporty,” “heroic,” “powerful” and “strong.”

Rev. Green has two daughters and a wife. According to the Daily Mail yesterday, July 17, Green said he doesn’t want them to get accustomed to seeing such messages.

“My wife and daughters are undoubtedly sporty, heroic, powerful, and strong, so I was quite upset when I saw the packaging,” Green said in the report.

The Twitter account of Radox (@RadoxUK) has since replied to Green’s tweet last July 16.

“Hi Philip, apologies if you have taken offense to our packaging. Your opinion as a valuable member of our audience matters to us and we’ve passed on your concerns on to our marketing and product development team for consideration with future labelling and launches.”

The tweet reached Green well, and he replied that same day, saying, “Thanks for getting back to me. I hope to see gender-neutral packaging soon. Best regards.”

Sexism is commonly seen in advertising, and it’s only in recent times when brands are starting to turn the tables and shift the conversation to gender equality. Recently, a company called Billie, a female-first shave and body brand, featured women with real body hair in their razor advertisement.

Their advert comes as a game changer as they celebrate women’s body hair, something that usually isn’t seen in commercials and advertisements.

“For more than 100 years, women’s razor brands haven’t shown women’s body hair…” Billie wrote on their Twitter account last June. “Until now. Introducing Project Body Hair. A celebration of body hair, wherever it is or isn’t.” JB

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