#UndefineBeauty Campaign
In celebration of our recent Webby award nomination, we would like to present the case study regarding our approach producing and filming the Undefine Beauty Campaign.
On Coty’s website the campaign letter reads:
“She was a great beauty in her youth” is the phrase often cited in major dictionaries to illustrate the concept of beauty, and one whose excluding effects we witnessed in a social experiment involving 100 people from all around the world (Link here). The campaign calls for the Dictionary publishers to review these examples and remove the implicit ageism and sexism they currently contain.”
Four Bent Corners was heavily involved with the creative execution and iteration of this exciting and worthwhile project. Working together with writer and creative director of the piece, Ghassan Jawhar, the campaign was filmed at our FBC studios in Amsterdam. We devised a schedule hosting over 150 people to film interviews about their journey with the concept of beauty and how included or excluded they really were under the current definition. This resulted in real stories being captivated on screen and shared in the room, according to people’s level of comfortability.
Four Bent Corners did the casting process by working with background actors agencies and the local community to source inspirational and diverse talent for the piece. Working with the client, we did many iterations of different pairings of people to get a result that felt organic and inclusive.
Filming the 150 people in our studio was a two day shoot. For post production, Leanne Vink came in to do the edit. Within the edit, we were very careful to tell the full story. We did not want to play to people’s emotions or redact anyone’s full story. Leanne did an excellent job of holding up this commitment in the edit. The final result is moving yet realistic. We believe that the piece served as an effective call to action for the campaign. In April 2024 it was announced that the Undefine Beauty campaign video was nominated for a Webby award in the category Video – Public Service and Activism.
Webby Award Nomination 2024
“The current English language definitions
of the term ‘beauty’ are outdated.”
The Undefine Beauty panel was based on the Undefine Beauty campaign challenging the English language dictionary’s definition of beauty. The campaign, administered by Coty’s CEO Sue Y. Nabi and its board members, states that “The #UndefineBeauty campaign recognizes that the current English language definitions of the term ‘beauty’ are outdated and no longer reflect the values of today’s society. Specifically, the examples cited under the current entries for ‘beauty’ across the leading English dictionaries are both limiting and exclusive.
The campaign was received by a wide audience and was represented by thought leaders in the beauty world such as Priyanka Jonas.
Four Bent Corners was thrilled to be approached by long-time collaborators, Coty and creative director Ghassan Jawhar, to produce and execute on the creative look, set design and overall filming of the piece.
An infinity backdrop location shoot was chosen at one of our favorite studios – Allard Studios. It was a four camera setup and we also made use of a crane to capture the interviewees.
''The creative look and feel
of the set was inspired by different
color crayons in a box."
The creative look and feel of the set was inspired by different color crayons in a box. It matched Coty’s current company brand identity and ethos. We worked together with our set designers to create a forest of different color expressions, wrapping seamless backdrop paper around cylinders we spotted in a hardware store (an invention our founder, Richard Patterson, creatively coined). The use of seamless was inspired by using organic materials, keeping the materials recyclable and also having the option to rig it up easily.
The panel is currently in post production and we can’t wait to share the end result with you soon.
