November 10, 2017

Let’s talk about censorship….

More specifically, we want to talk about the censorship of art in the social media space, and while we’re at it, let’s have a little debrief about the #sussans of the world who find themselves wildly offended at everything that happens on the internet these days.

Our new collection, Bad Bitch Club, has just launched and alongside that, our advertising campaign has begun to appear across various social media platforms. It’s a gorgeous collaboration with a talented team of artists and creatives which has resulted in content we are really proud of.

But guess who thought a little differently? You guessed it, the ultra conservative and and seriously uptight moderators of social media. So when we say HAS begun to appear? What we actually mean is….it’s being blocked left right and centre.

Look, we get it, we push the envelope at times, but even we were a tad shocked to wake up the morning of our launch and discover that close to ALL our campaign ads had been blocked pretty much f$#king everywhere. I mean, is putting the word f#$k on a candle actually the worst thing on Facebook right now? Have you seen those pimple popping videos? Now THAT shit is offensive!

And why? Essentially because we tried to redefine that overarching image of the quiet, heartbroken victim or meekly morose girl next door. Seemingly, women are only acceptable on social media if they are chic, elegant, overly styled and god forbid if they have habits deemed unsavoury like drinking or swearing.

Look, we like to keep it real with the world. I mean, we’d LOVE to be the kind of totally together ladies who go on yoga retreats and sip green smoothies whilst reading positive mantras after a harsh break up or life shattering event… But that’s just not us.

Sorry Facebook, but in our unfiltered life, we get angry, swear, drink shots with our besties, and even smoke a cheeky cigarette or two.

We ride out our feelings and our emotions in a loud, messy, imperfect way, and we are not going to apologise for it.

And while we are on the topic, we want to address a few comments we got on instagram when our video went live. 99% of our customers loved the imagery, and really got into the vibe of our message. But, as usual, the #sussans of the internet had to pop up and find a way to throw shade. In particular, there was criticism of our model being shallow, too beautiful AND a bad influence. Yet again, the #instapolice are out and about making assumptions about our talented, sweet, intelligent model, and our moral standards as a company. Sweet lord, can we not just sell a candle without the ten commandments coming into it?

What is disappointing to us, is that the comments come from women. And they are directed towards other women. As a company run exclusively by females, our ‘modus operandis’ is to create empowering products that inspire and excite. That’s it. No body shaming. No subliminal messages. No hidden agenda. Just kick ass style with a side of sass.

At the end of the day, both the blocking of our ads, and the comments suggesting we are presenting the wrong image of females is almost exactly WHY we created the collection. We wanted to represent the character traits of females that don’t often get exposure. Because we are bored with seeing #cleaneating perfection and the ‘careful editing’ images of women online.

We want to see the girls who may look glamorous at a party, but end up spilling their red wine on their new dress. AND we want to see them pick themselves up, laugh out loud and embrace their mistakes. We want to spread the concept that all women are flawed, fiercely passionate, have messy break ups and sometimes have bad habits, and make huge mistakes.

But underneath all that ‘imperfection’ is the true unparalleled beauty. It’s the wild ones, the sassy ones, those are the girls that we want to tell the story of. Basically, to the haters?? We don’t care for your censorship of our vibe, we want real f#$ing life in 100% colour.