Explore Our Stories

The 4R Framework was created by P&G Beauty as a guide and assessment tool to help our brands achieve Reach, Representation, Relevance and Resonance with diverse consumers. This stemmed from the realization that every brand needed to take on a learning journey to assess how they were connecting with consumers of color. As the capability was built internally, P&G Beauty saw the opportunity to share the framework externally with any brand or company who was interested to learn more. This mindset ensured that the collective industry continues learning and creating plans that authentically build more inclusive communication and brands. The 4R framework ensures the products and communications are built on a deep understanding of the consumer, as well as resonating more deeply by taking sustained action to drive wider cultural or social change.

As part of the “Leading with Love” series we created in partnership with Katie Couric Media, our second video shared the story of Emily, a loving mother of four who leads the Shenandoah Valley LGBTQ Center, an organization that provides much needed services to the LGBTQ+ community in the Staunton, Virginia area. Emily helps those struggling with their sexual orientation or identity find a place to belong and is always there to offer a hug when needed.

Thrust into the role in 2018 with no nonprofit or LGBTQ center experience, Emily plunged in and found that it was the dream job she never knew she wanted. At the time she took over leading the center, two of her four children had come out, and she knew there was a need for the type of resources this center provided. Check out her story here.

In just four years, Pantene Japan's #HairWeGo and My Hair Moves Forward programs created significant cultural shift in the long-standing hair biases experienced by Japanese young women.

Pantene Japan’s online survey from 2020 revealed that 76% of LGBTQ+ job hunters in Japan keep their sexual identity a secret because of fear of discrimination. The #PrideHair project is a series of ongoing ads based from the experiences of LGBTQ+ former job hunters. The aim is to create awareness and start conversations around the challenges for LGBTQ+ job hunters and to give courage and hope to not just LGBTQ+ job hunters, but also to the next generation.

The film was viewed more than 20 million times and sparked conversations around the topic. It has been covered by media, including national TV and digital media. One of the major TV programs has featured #PrideHair as a symbolic brand action in Japan’s LGBTQ+ movement to create more diverse and inclusive society.

Pantene Japan will keep supporting the LGBTQ+ community and all job-hunting students who are taking the first step forward with their hair.

Always discovered that one out of four Brazilian girls miss school because they have no access to menstrual pads. However, period poverty was not something discussed in the country – there wasn't even an expression for it in Portuguese. We raised awareness on the issue with data and images of period poverty in Brazil, showing how the issue has a huge impact on girls' confidence and future and how it is still a taboo. Instantly, the survey became a trending topic and media picked up the conversation. With influencers, key opinion leaders and customers, we launched a campaign and donated one million pads to girls in need. The issue was also discussed among public agencies and government, and 45 days after launch of the campaign, the governor of São Paulo sanctioned a law establishing that public schools would get funding for distributing pads to their students, more than 1.3 million girls. Always kicked off the program donating an extra two million pads to schools in São Paulo.

Check out this video that tells this story.

"When my daughter was born last February, I took the statutory two-week paternity leave. Whilst it was incredible to be able to spend time with my family in those early days, any parent will know that those first two weeks are unlike anything else. Having the opportunity to take an additional six-week period of leave from work once my​ daughter was a bit older was awesome, and the business couldn’t have been more flexible — they even allowed me to change the timings of my leave so that I was able to take it when coronavirus restrictions had eased, meaning that my wife and I were able to go and spend time with our families and properly introduce our daughter to them. The impact of my paternity leave has extended far beyond my relationship with my family. Personally, it’s helped me to create a strong bond with my daughter in a way which I believe could only have been done through taking an extended period of time away from work. Career-wise, it’s had a huge impact, too. I’ve been in my role for five years now, and I felt quite nervous at the prospect of taking six weeks off and leaving my team to pick up extra work in my absence. But honestly, I think it’s the best thing I have ever done for my career. I have returned refreshed, with a new-found energy and excitement for the day-to-day. I really hope I’ve set a precedent for other parents within the organization to follow."

Matt Thomas, Senior Brand Director, Commercial Operations, Grooming Northern Europe

Over the past year, in the midst of a global pandemic, there has been an increase in hate speech and hate crimes around the world, as well as in Canada. P&G Canada has stepped up and committed to match donations to four CanadaHelps funds: Black Solidarity Fund, Asian Solidarity Fund, Anti-Racism Fund and the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Fund. To date, these funds have generated a total of CAD $3.5 million to support marginalized communities and anti-racism initiatives across Canada.

Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world, with a population said to be one of the most diverse (56% of the population is Black or Brown). At P&G, we want to build a diverse organization that reflects Brazil’s population, celebrating a culture of inclusion and respect for the uniqueness of each employee, allowing everyone to perform at their peak and enable better business results.

A few years ago, we started a journey on racial inclusion, with an initiative called Racial 360°.

We found out that only 8% of people hired by P&G were Black or Brown. With that big gap versus the population in society, we launched P&G for You, a program designed to attract Black talent and meet two important needs: Only 1% of the Brazilian population has fluent English, so we funded English classes for new talent, and special mentorship program to ensure retention. We also started to attend recruitment fairs of more diverse universities, as well as bringing more inclusivity to our communication. As a result, we closed the last fiscal year with 26% of Black or Brown participants in our intern population.

We developed a “brand representativeness scorecard,” where all of Brazilian P&G brands are measured against the goal of accurate LGBTQ+, gender portrayal, racial and ethnical, and people with disabilities. Our brands are making continuous progress with 11 out of 19 improving on the scorecard, accurately portraying diversity in every communication opportunity. We launched a Social Accelerator program designed to mentor and develop companies with Black and Brown leaders.

We partnered with NGOs such as United Way, Capacita-me and Tree Diversidade to promote education for young people in vulnerable communities and the development of young Black social leaders, as well as to donate food and products across the country.

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There are more than 250 million people globally with low or no vision and even more people with hearing loss. These people are often ignored when it comes to television advertising. P&G has introduced audio description (AD) across the majority of our advertisements in the UK, U.S. and Spain — opening them up to over 25 million blind or visually impaired people. Audio description is a separate audio track which includes a description of the visual aspects of a video to enable a blind person to ‘see’ the information being displayed. To raise awareness of audio description, we partnered with Channel 4 and other advertisers in the UK to create a tailored ad break, which demonstrates what it is like for blind people to watch TV with audio description and provides guidance on how to turn on the service via the television settings. Here is an example of an ad with audio description.

Last year, P&G Beauty Europe launched its first ever fully accessible TV commercial in France with Head & Shoulders. In Spain, Olay launched its first fully accessible TV commercial behind the brand’s #FaceAnything campaign. We also introduced captioning in many of our European countries raising the importance of inclusive and accessible advertising. These important milestones have opened the possibilities for other advertisers to adapt and broadcast with audio description, and we have worked with the industry to enable the necessary technicalities.

In the U.S., we launched the audio-described Super Bowl advertisement on our Tide brand and also created ‘AD Ad Break’ takeover to demonstrate the importance of audio description in partnership with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) during the Paralympic Games.

These milestones in accessibility allow people with vision and hearing loss to enjoy the stories and information in an inclusive and equal way. Read more about accessible advertising and audio-description here.