Lush, one of Britain's biggest cosmetics retailers, deleted its Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat accounts globally last week, after former Facebook employee Frances Haugen accused the social network of...cause bad influenceon the mental health of young people. "Just as the fight against climate change has been ignored and downplayed for decades, concerns about the serious impact of social media are being ignored," the company said in a press release.
The announcement of Lush's social media accounts being closed came during the biggest shopping day of the year (Black Friday) and the brand has fully calculated the damage it will have to its business going forward.
CEO Mark Constantine said deleting the social media accounts cost the company £10 million, but he was happy to be away from Facebook and other social media sites. According to The Guardian, Lush's Facebook and Instagram accounts have a combined 10.6 million followers.
Mark Constantine has accepted this trade-off, also saying in an interview with The Guardian that Lush “has no choice” when the activities of Meta – the company behind Facebook and Instagram – are ignoring the negative impacts of these two platforms on mental health in minors.
Lush closes Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat accounts in all 48 countries where the company operates, but the brand still keeps its accounts on Twitter and Youtube. - Photo: Internet
Cosmetics brand Lush has been vocal about various social issues in recent years. Back in 2019, Lush shut down its Facebook and Instagram accounts because it was "tired of fighting the algorithms," but the brand has since returned to those platforms.
Many major advertisers also boycotted Facebook and Instagram of Meta company in 2020 after the death of George Floyd - a black man killed by a police officer, this incident spread strongly on social networks and caused many protests, even riots in the US. Eventually, advertisers all returned to Facebook and Instagram after a while.
However, this time Lush has pledged not to use social media again. Mark Constantine said: "We don't do it as a PR stunt, we do it for the right reasons, if we go back to social media again, our brand will definitely become a laughing stock."
