Nivea’s “WHITE IS PURITY” ad campaign

ABOUT NIVEA
NIVEA is a German personal care brand that specializes in body-care. It is owned by the Hamburg-
based company Beiersdorf Global AG. The company was founded on 28 March 1882, by Paul Carl
Beiersdorf. In 1890, it was sold to Oscar Troplowitz. Troplowitz worked with his consultant Paul
Gerson Unna and the German chemist Isaac Lifschütz, developed a new skin care cream. In 1900,
Lifschütz developed a water-in-oil emulsion Eucerit, the first stable emulsion. This was the origin
of Eucerin. Nivea comes from the Latin word niveus, meaning "snow-white".

When Nivea was launched in 1911, it started with just one product: the NIVEA Crème, which is still the
brands most popular product. Since then, the product portfolio has expanded significantly and present-
day product ranges comprise of NIVEA body care, NIVEA face care, NIVEA sun care, NIVEA MEN, NIVEA
deodorant and NIVEA bath care (Beiersdorf AG, 2015a).

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Since its early days, Nivea has always been a marketing success with high revenues, strong brand equity
and a large base of extremely loyal customers. While mainly communicating via television and print at
the beginning, today’s marketing communication of Nivea follows a holistic and integrated approach
with presence across various media channels such as print, TV, social media, email, their corporate
website and further channels. Communication goals are to promote Nivea as a family brand that values
trust and strong customer relationship. The present marketing communications journal analyzes the
NIVEA brand through three of its marketing communications tools: advertising, direct marketing and
point-of sale marketing.

Its overall communication strategy is highly integrated across various channels and uses a variety of
communication tools to market its products and position the brand as high quality family brand. Each
product category has its own multimedia strategy making use of both above-the-line advertising via TV,
radio, print and out-of-home media, and below-the-line advertising through direct mail, sales
promotions and point-of-sale marketing. Whenever Nivea is introducing new products to the market it
makes use of sampling. Experiential Marketing is another tool that the brand often uses to introduce
new products to the market. Nivea has an extremely strong marketing heritage. Their first campaigns
date back to the 1920s. Since the brands values and benefits have barely changed, messaging in the
early days of Nivea’s marketing communication is similar to the brand’s current messaging to a certain
extent. Its overall communication strategy is highly integrated across various channels and uses a variety
of communication tools to market its products and position the brand as high quality family brand. Each
product category has its own multimedia strategy making use of both above-the-line advertising via TV,
radio, print and out-of-home media, and below-the-line advertising through direct mail, sales
promotions and point-of-sale marketing. Whenever Nivea is introducing new products to the market it
makes use of 11 samplings. Experiential Marketing is another tool that the brand often uses to introduce
new products to the market.

Marketing/Advertising Agency

FCB
FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding) is a global, fully integrated marketing communications company with a
heritage of creativity and success dating from 1873. Based on a deeply developed understanding of
diversified local markets and global cultures, FCB focuses on significantly changing consumer
behavior to the benefit of its clients, its people and society. With more than 8,000 people in 120
offices in 80 countries, the company is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG). Learn
more at www.FCB.com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@FCBglobal) and Facebook (FCB
Global).

In 2019 Nivea Skincare has been dropped by one of the world’s

largest advertising agencies after a senior Nivea employee allegedly
said “We don’t do gay at Nivea” when shown an advert that featured
two men touching hands.

This year in November Beiersdorf appoints Publicis Groupe as global agency and
marketing transformation partner for NIVEA.

Beiersdorf, a leading provider of innovative, high-quality skin care products, has appointed
Publicis Groupe as the global agency and marketing transformation partner for the world’s
largest skin care brand NIVEA. The partnership will officially start in January 2020.
Publicis Groupe is known for its world-renowned creativity, best in class technology, digital
and consulting expertise. To perfectly serve NIVEA and manage both digital and creative
services, Publicis Groupe has created a ‘Power of One’-model. It is designed to increase
the effectiveness, efficiency and consistency of NIVEA’s marketing activities. Its bespoke
agency will be called ‘ONE TOUCH’. ONE TOUCH will be present across 40 markets, with
major hubs in New York, Sao Paulo, Cape Town, Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, Bangkok,
Moscow and Hamburg.
Nivea’s ‘White Is Purity’ ad campaign
Nivea has pulled a deodorant ad that declared “White Is Purity” after people called the slogan
racist and after some hijacked the ad’s online campaign with comments about white supremacy.

The ad, which appeared in a Facebook post last week, originally targeted the German skin care
company’s followers in the Middle East. It was intended to promote Nivea’s “Invisible for Black
and White” deodorant and depicted the back of a woman’s head with long, wavy, dark hair that
tumbled over an all-white outfit.

Underneath the woman’s locks was the slogan in all caps: “WHITE IS PURITY.”

The caption on Nivea’s Facebook post read: “Keep it clean, keep bright. Don’t let anything ruin
it, #Invisible.”

Nivea USA apologized right after people called the advertisement racist.
The advertisement campaign was badly executed as the words used on the post
are deemed racist and shows white supremacy. It was promoting that “white is
purity” as a goodness of skin.