British cosmetics company Lush has decided to close a number of its social media accounts across the 48 countries it operates in.
The decision is a reaction to the “serious effects” Lush believes social media platforms are having on mental health. As Jack Constantine, chief digital officer and product inventor at Lush, told the BBC:
“[Social media channels] do need to start listening to the reality of how they’re impacting people’s mental health and the damage that they’re causing through their craving for the algorithm to be able to constantly generate content regardless of whether it’s good for the users or not.”
Mark Constantine, co-founder of Lush, also explained the decision to remove the company from certain platforms:
“I’ve spent all my life avoiding putting harmful ingredients in my products. There is now overwhelming evidence we are being put at risk when using social media. I’m not willing to expose my customers to this harm, so it’s time to take it out of the mix.”
The social accounts being closed include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Lush’s YouTube and Twitter accounts will continue to run and the closure of the other social accounts will be reassessed after a year. The company believes this decision could cost Lush over $13 million in lost sales, but hopes to “gain that back” without needing to rely on social media.
The concern for Lush is that this decision, regardless of the positive reaction it’s sure to generate, could seriously damage sales beyond what has been predicted. On the other hand, the concern for social networks is that Lush doesn’t suffer a major loss and that other companies will decide to follow them off social media.
