Burt’s Bees Skincare Installations Stop Consumers Dead in Their Tracks

If you’re a marketer, you’ve probably thrown around those ubiquitous terms, push and pull marketing. The marketplace has seen a major paradigm shift from pushing products onto consumers, to pulling them in, inviting them to engage with the brand in novel and unique ways. At MSLK, we think this is especially important to consider when creating sophisticated branding campaigns in the beauty industry. How can you stop consumers dead in their tracks, invite an interaction or ignite a conversation? Burt’s Bees skincare installations do just that. In a series of three installations that have traveled to public spaces across Canada, the pieces educate women about the harmful effects of most allegedly natural skincare products on the market.

In one piece, a clear torso is filled with pink lotion, representing the amount of body lotion absorbed in your system in a lifetime. In the next, a nine-pound cube of lipstick illustrates the amount of lipstick a woman eats in her lifetime.

In another, baby soap, lotion and shampoo form a giant baby bottle to show that what you put on your baby’s skin actually goes into your baby’s system.

The message is clear—these statistics are unavoidable realities, and with Burt’s Bee’s products, you can trust that at least what you are ingesting is completely natural and not harmful.

The visualization of surprising statistics as art objects is a unique concept that MSLK responds to and is quite familiar with, as that is what we have done with our eco-art installations 2669 Urban Tumbleweeds, Watershed and Take-Less. Although Burt’s Bee’s might call these pieces installations, I prefer to think of them as artifacts within a mini-exhibition. The unique combination of messaging, art, and information design creates a dynamic brand and learning experience that is truly memorable.

~Ryan Nussbaum