Tarte Cosmetics receives backlash for lack of diversity
On January 12th, 2018, Tarte Cosmetics released its newest line of foundation, the Shape Tape foundation, online. Upon the product’s release, many customers noticed that the line’s shade range was extremely exclusive. The foundation came in 15 shades, and only 3 of those shades were created for those with somewhat darker skin tones. The remainder of the foundation shades were made for extremely light-skinned people, which upset a large audience due to the fact that many people with darker skin could not even find a shade to potentially use.
Not only was the limited shade range an issue, but Tarte also happened to release its Shape Tape foundation extremely close to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The fact that the holiday is in celebration of a man who fought for racial equality upset the audience even more due to the fact that the product’s lack of diversity represents exactly the opposite of what the holiday stands for.
Tarte responded to the crisis on January 17th (five days after the initial launch of the Shape Tape foundation) by posting to its Instagram story. The response read:
“It may be too little too late, but we can assure you this was not meant in any kind of malicious way. We all just got so caught up in #shapetapenation and seeing your tweets asking for it… We wanted to get the product out as fast as possible, & we made the decision to move forward before all the shades were ready to go. We know there is no excuse, & we take full responsibility for launching this way. We lost sight of what’s really important in this industry, & for those who feel alienated in our community, we want to personally apologize. We’re doing everything in our power to bring those unfinished shades to market as fast as we can, at any cost. We CAN and WILL DO BETTER.” (Barbour, 2018)
It would have been ideal for the company to respond to the crisis the same day it occurred in order to minimize the backlash that the company got as time went on. Choosing to wait five days before acknowledging the issue allowed the crisis to go viral; for example, the original tweet that exposed the product’s laughable shade range “…was liked more than 10,000 times, and many criticized the brand for its lack of diversity.”(Tempesta, 2018) Not only did this tweet go viral, but the product was also publicly bashed by numerous massive social media influencers. Had the company addressed the issue as soon as it occurred, there would have been no room for any influencers or social media users to assume that Tarte was being racist in its product launch.
Tarte also made a huge mistake by replying to the crisis in a way that made the company seem unaccountable and aloof. Explaining that the lack of diversity was due to the company not having shades ready in time only further angered people — the company should have simply taken more time to produce shades for every skin tone before launching the product in the first place. Not only was it a bad move on the company’s part to prematurely launch the product, but taking five days to acknowledge the crisis only seemed to validate the audience’s online claims that Tarte did not support equality for all races.
From this crisis, I hope that Tarte learned the importance of taking the necessary amount of time to launch a product and to ensure that every audience is included. This could be done by testing a focus group before launching the product so that any potential issues/crises would be realized and resolved before going public online. While this was not done, the actual issue itself could have been handled much better after the fact, and I believe that Tarte now knows the importance of handling a social media crisis quickly and effectively. Many people also criticized the fact that Tarte’s apology was made on its Instagram story (which means that the apology would disappear after 24 hours). From this, Tarte can learn that for an apology to be taken seriously, it should be released on a permanent platform (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.). This way, the apology seems much more genuine and remorseful, and does not give anyone the chance after the fact to say that an apology was not given.
Resources:
Barbour, S. (2018, January 22). Tarte Apologizes For Their Limited Foundation Shade Range. Retrieved November 3, 2018, from https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/a15583788/tarte-cosmetics-shape-tape-foundation-shades-apology/
@glowkit. (2018, January 12). The Tarte shape tape foundation shade range is LAUGHABLE [Tweet]. Retrieved November 3, 2018, from https://twitter.com/glowkit/status/952025737292341248
Snap Tea. (2018, January 18). Tarte issues Instagram story apology for Shape Tape shade range [Video File]. Retrieved November 3, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEK4qIyxUAE
Tempesta, E. (2018, January 17). Tarte is slammed for lack of diversity. Retrieved November 3, 2018, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5272107/Tarte-slammed-lack-diversity.html