2020’s Creative Campaigns #6 – About Bloody Time

I shouldn’t be here writing this today, but I am.

That’s because racially diverse plasters should be commonplace by now, but they’re not.

Plasters are skin-tone coloured so that when they protect our skin, they’re not painstakingly obvious.

Which is great.

Well, that’s if you don’t account for every other skin tone there is other than ‘white’.

I’m hoping you sense the sarcasm as I tell you that while in one breath I’m really glad to be writing about this today, by the same token it seems almost as though it shouldn’t be something to write home about at all. Plasters should have been racially-diverse many moons ago, but unfortunately, they weren’t.

So while I’m about to write a whole lot of praise for Tesco and their new plaster range, I also just wanted to say that though this campaign deserves praise for being the first of it’s kind, it should also serve as a reminder to other brands that it is now 2020, and racial diversity should be routine nowadays.

It’s About Bloody Time, But I Love It Anyway

Plasters are pretty much a run-of-the-mill product that almost every household has. I’ve never given them too much thought, to be honest.

But then again, why would I? I’m white and have quite a fair skin tone, I’ve never really noticed that plasters specifically don’t match my skin.

That can’t be said for everybody.

Which is why I’m taking my hat off to Tesco today, who have become the first UK supermarket to launch a range of plasters which come in three different skin tones.

In a brazen advert, they’ve described the product line as ‘about bloody time’.

I couldn’t agree more.

Though not directly said, it’s as though Tesco are holding their hands up for not being diverse sooner. But are saying “look, we’re doing it now”, which I do find quite honorable.

How Tesco Got It Just Right

It would have been wrong to pin the new plaster range as a revolutionary step forward in diversity and equality, as truth be told multi-skin tone plasters should be stocked on shelves everywhere by now.

Nevertheless, despite this being a little too late in my books, I still commend Tesco for their efforts and love the way that they’ve executed this launch. They’ve not shouted from the rooftops about it, and haven’t self-titled themselves as ‘pacesetters’.

They’ve simply said: “This is what we’re doing now, and it’s about time really.”

There’s just the right balance of promotion without being overbearing. An announcement without taking the biscuit. I wouldn’t brand this product launch as a ‘campaign’ per se, but due to the principled way that Tesco has pushed the news out, it’s made it to my Creative Campaigns series for 2020.

Simple, yet effective. I hope more brands follow suit soon.

What do you think? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter or in the comments below.