From November 26, 2021, global brand, LUSH will be turning its back on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat, until the platforms take action to provide a safer environment for users.
This policy is rolling out across all the 48 countries where LUSH operates.
In the same way that evidence against climate change was ignored and belittled for decades, concerns about the serious effects of social media are going largely ignored now.
LUSH is taking matters into its own hands and addressing the issues now, not waiting around until others believe in the problem before changing its own behaviour.
The brand shared the below statement:
"Like so many teenagers have experienced before us, Lush has tried to come off social media, but our FOMO is vast, and our compulsion to use the various platforms means we find ourselves back on there, despite our best intentions.
So here we are again, trying to go cold (plant-based) turkey.
Having previously attempted this in 2019, our resolve has been strengthened by all the latest information from courageous whistleblowers, which clearly lays out the known harms that young people are exposed to because of the current algorithms and loose regulation of this new area of our lives.
We wouldn’t ask our customers to meet us down a dark and dangerous alleyway – but some social media platforms are beginning to feel like places no one should be encouraged to go. Something has to change.
We hope that platforms will introduce strong best practice guidelines, and we hope that international regulation will be passed into law.
But we can’t wait. We feel forced to take our own action to shield our customers from the harm and manipulation they may experience whilst trying to connect with us on social media."
LUSH promises not to be completely anti-social. The brand will do all it can to find new ways to connect, to build better channels of communication elsewhere, as well as using the older tried and tested routes.
For now LUSH can still be found on Twitter and YouTube. See here for a full list of where you can find them.
