Many of the models used in Dove’s international smash hit “Campaign for Real Beauty” commercials were supplied by Ben Barry talent agency. Ben’s is a true story of young Canadian entrepreneurial talent and drive. At the mere age of 15, Ben turned the fashion and cosmetics industry on its head with a very simple and common sense concept: ‘real’ people’s bodies don’t look like the picture-perfect models the industry uses to showcase their products.
I met Ben in Halifax, Canada, in 2005 at an entrepreneurship event. Ben’s story is very unique. He started when he was 14 years old in his parents basement in Ottawa by mailing magazines some pictures of his body-concious friend to try and help her get a modeling contract. One magazine called back asking if he was her “agent”, and the rest is history. By age 22, Ben Barry had offices in Toronto, New York, and London. He is 24 years old now, and have supplied models to a number of international brands, with a view at changing the perceptions that run the modeling industry.
Ben is revolutionizing the modeling industry by challenging the concept of “ideal beauty”. He believes that models should represent common, achievable beauty, which comes in different shapes, sizes, and ages. Following the smashing success of the Dove campaign, Ogilvy sponsored Ben to conduct graduate studies at the Judge Business School of Cambridge University. He is researching the real impact of using realistic models on a company’s bottom line.
I am a big fan of Ben. He succeeded in what a number of young, smart, and high-achieving entrepreneurs in Halifax are attempting everyday: Change common perceptions, and challenge traditional non-progressive thought.
As a member of a small (but growing) group of young entrepreneurs in Halifax, I asked Ben to share with me (and the fine readers of this blog) some tips on how to lobby stakeholders for change in an environment that seems to be stuck in its ways. Keep checking the blog over the next couple of days to read Ben’s comments.
Do you have a cause-related business or professional venture similar to Ben Barry’s? Please share with us your ambition, experience, and difficulties you anticipate or are currently facing. The comments section is wide open and you can post anonymously!
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Ben Barry
Thanks for this blog entry on my work!
As young people, we are in the best position to innovate. We have not worked in an industry for 20 years with routines and routine assumptions ingrained into us. We aren’t pre-committed to established business practices. We haven’t yet built careers and reputations on a particular set of ideas. We don’t have an investment in the status quo. As newcomers to the market with fresh thinking, we’re well positioned to innovate.
While social change can be made through activism, the not-for-profit sector, and government, I also think it can be made through business. After all, business has created so many ills in our world – and so what better place to correct these problems than from the root?
Whether you’re in a small town or big city, in a big corporation or running your own business, you can lead change – change that’s focused within your own organization, change that nudges a whole industry, or change that transforms society. Here are some tips from my experiences:
Staggered Approach. Don’t come off full on, trying to embark on a comprehensive and radical transformation overnight. Start slowly with one idea and one aspect. Show it is successful. Then continue to push for more, using your small success to persuade and boost the confidence of critics. When I began to promote diverse models, I first supplied our clients with only traditional models who they were use to. I did this to build trust and confidence in my work. After a year, I would then say, you’re hiring ten models, why not try 2 who are non-traditional and reflect your consumers? They did, and had positive consumer support. I then pushed for three or four the next season.
Use Their Language. In order to persuade decision makers to create change, you need to use their language and goals to explain the innovation and why it will work. In order to get the fashion world to hire my diverse models, I first explained to ad agents and magazine editors that my friends felt badly about their bodies when they solely saw models who reflected western beauty ideals (tall, young, thin, white). They would respond by saying, “We’re not trying to create body insecurity in your friends, but it’s not our problem. We’re making money.” I re-framed my case using their logic and language – that of business rather than social. I explained these people who were feeling badly about their bodies were not just my friends – they were their consumers. And the way in which they felt about their bodies was the way in which they felt about their brand. Right now, these brands were not maximizing profits because they were disconnected from consumers. They would re-connect by using models that consumers could see themselves in – and this identification with the models would increase sales and brand loyalty.
Work from Within. While social change can be made through activism, the not-for-profit sector, and government, I also think it can be made through business. After all, business has created so many ills in our world – so what better place to correct these problems than from the root? Rather than trying to convince others to make change from the outside, in business, you have the levers to make the changes yourself.
Conviction. There will be many naysayers – people who will say your ideas will never sell. But don’t give up. Keep pushing. Keep trying different angles. Over 50 companies rejected me when I tried to sell them diverse models. But I kept on calling back, and calling others. Eventually one firm took a chance. They were successful and I used the case study to push for greater change from them and persuade their competitors.
Trough my business, I realized that our generation of entrepreneurs is doing business differently. We don’t simply give away money to charities after we make our profit. Instead, we develop businesses that make the world more just and sustainable by its products, services, and operating practices. Businesses that are doing well by doing good. We are using business not solely as a vehicle for profit – but as a vehicle for social change.
In no way am I exceptional in this new way of business. In fact, it’s a national movement. Thousand of young people are operating and working within these balanced companies. In my book, I have chronicled some of the struggles, successes, and advice of these renegade entrepreneurs – along with my own.
I look forward to hearing about what change you are trying to create, and what strategies you are using. Together, we can create a world in which we really want to live. We can fashion reality.
Layal
My favourite ad by far is the evalution film “How did our idea of beauty become so distorted?” by dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty”. This is the kind of advertising that sells regardless of race, religion, age, and gender because so many people can relate to it on so many levels. It’s simply the best!
Mike Chitty
Great post!
I would not agree that the young necessarily have the edge on innovation. As a mid 40s trying to do something new I have to hope!
We are setting up a network for progressive managers. People who recognise that part of their role is to recruit, retain and develop people who can ado great work. People who recognise that they have to keep learning and changing in order to stay on top of their game. And finally people who are passionate about making progress. making things better. So much of the orthodox management theory and training is about business as inputs and outputs. Business/social change is about emotion, relationships, personality, passion and unpredicatability. Let’s acknowledge that and learn to work with it. More at http://progmanager.wordpress.com
Greatest challenges – overcoming cynicism, enabling members to use technology (podcasting, online forums, blogs, RSS etc), getting engagement with the idea.
Issmat A.
I like your outlook, Mike! Innovation is certainly not a function of age. You have a valuable service to offer through your network, but how is the demand looking?
If there was a ‘Progression Index’ to guage a nations tendancy to adopt progressive thoughts and practices, I would say the index would be based on how many people subscribe to services like yours.
Thanks for visiting the blog and I hope you continue to visit often!
Issmat A.
Ben Barry
I think that age is not a number but a mindset!
Nicole Mery
Hi! I want to say that Ben, I think what you are doing is an amazing reflection of what our generation represents!!! I have been to your website, and I think it’s so beautiful that someone has finally stepped up and has brought real and beautiful women to commercials. I know growing up, I was conscious about myself, comparing myself to the “ideal” beauty standard. I have grown out of it by realizing the media’s main goal is to make people feel inadequate to make more sales, as well as embarking on my own business adventures and ideas, which have truly made me happy on the inside. One of my goals is to be a model, and I have wanted this for a long time. I always wondered why I looked the way I looked, and I thought, that since I have been given a gift of looking nice, that I will somehow put it to use for the greater good. I know someday I will be a model. It’s in me. I have also applied for Miss World Canada 2008, and I hope I win it, because it has been another goal of mine that I want to accomplish. I know that if I win, I will have a larger platform to let all the youth I can reach know that if I could achieve something like this, that with hard work, with hope, and with a deep conviction in yourself, that they can too! I actually want to be a lifecoach. It is one of my main callings in life. A lifecoach, if some of you don’t know
, is helping people find their passions in life and making their passions a reality. I know how much I stuggled to find mine, and so my friend and I are actually in the process of creating a program for highschool students to help them find their passion as well as set up job shadowing with leading employers in their region. I also want my own t.v. show related to life coaching, which will involve the following: going to a random woman’s house in a poor neighbourhood, and giving her a makeover, which can do volumes for a person’s worth. Also, I will teach her tools to make her life better, because I actually think that many poor people have so much potential, but they just have not been shown a way, or been given the right opportunity, or have had the right mentor. I want to be their mentor. Wow, this sounds like a novel lol. I dont know why I’m writing so much, but I guess the more you write down your goals, the more they will come true. I will mention one more thing. One of my real callings is to show love to orphans. This year, I finally made my goal of visiting an orphanage, in my home country of Slovakia, come true. I want to visit orphanages during my lifetime, and set up and help be the catalyst in building schools in Africa! I hope you have enjoyed my post, and I hope all of you may come closer to your goals. All the best!