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These days, video calls have been some of the only ways many of us have been connecting with close friends, long-distance family members, and colleagues. While one could argue that there are plenty more important things right now than how you physically present yourself on a conference call, that still hasn't stopped people — specifically women — from feeling pressured to look a certain way during virtual meetings. That's why Billie [3], a subscription service for hair-removal products [4], launched an empowering campaign that attempts to dismantle this unnecessary standard.
The campaign titled "Are We Doing Video?" launched on May 12 and was inspired by the mostly women employees at Billie. As the video illustrates, spending more time on video calls means that we also spend more time looking at ourselves on camera and subsequently apologising for our appearances — a stress zit here [5], some shiny, unwashed hair [6] there. But the campaign notes the real issue in doing so is that we are essentially apologising for simply . . . looking like ourselves.
"Billie is synonymous with championing women and moving the needle to overcome societal standards," the brand said in a release. "With the expansion of their product line into clean beauty, they're widening their gaze beyond normalizing body hair (as they did with Project Body Hair) and addressing the larger societal pressure to look a certain way."
Watch the full uplifting ad above.