End of ethical Body Shop?

Set against a background of rising environmentalism – epitomised by the Green Party winning fifteen per cent of the vote in 1989’s European Elections – the late 1980s Body Shop looked to many like a beacon of corporate social responsibility long before the term was fashionable.

The Green’s electoral success turned out to be a blip, but they did put environmentalism on the mainstream agenda. However, it was the Body Shop that made animal testing an issue for consumers and led the revolution in ethical retailing. In market research animal testing continues to divide, with some feeling concern for animal welfare somehow distracts from concern for people.

Now it’s emerged that the Body Shop may be gobbled up by L’Oréal, one of the major cosmetics firms it was established to oppose. At first site, the Body Shop has won the ethical debate. Animal testing of cosmetics is set to be banned throughout the EU by 2009, but L’Oréal walks a fine line. While they haven’t tested their cosmetics for fourteen years, they point out that current EU law says they must test new ingredients. Yet they are not the reluctant animal testers they first appear. L’Oreal has conspired against the 2009 ban and environmentalists question the need for new ingredients at all.
Contact Stephen Newton

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