Ugly FCB-Nivea breakup follows 100-year relationship, recent controversies

Nivea’s ugly parting with FCB isn’t your ordinary agency breakup: It ends a relationship more than a century old, dating to when the agency went by the name Lord & Thomas. But it follows a rocky few years that have included three incidents where the brand was criticized for ads seen as racially insensitive. Beyond the history, the account is no small loss for FCB. While Nivea only had $21.8 million in U.S. measured media spending last year, per Kantar, the brand, owned by Germany’s Beiersdorf, is much bigger outside the U.S., with $4.9 billion in global annual sales, according to estimates by Evercore. It represented 1 percent of agency revenue globally, according to an FCB internal memo. The end of the relationship follows tensions dating to 2017, according to people familiar with the matter, the same year FCB and Beiersdorf reorganized agency and client teams globally. It comes just before the end of Pride Month, and in the wake of a client meeting in which, according to people familiar with the matter, a marketer rejected a photo of two men’s hands touching by saying “Nivea doesn’t do gay.” FCB declined to comment. In a statement, Beiersdorf said: “Nivea and FCB have had a long-standing partnership that goes back more than 100 years. However, in light of the profound transformation of our industry and the advertising landscape, a decision was made at the start of the year to review Nivea’s current agency model. As a result, Beiersdorf will initiate a pitch process for our biggest global brand. Following the launch of our new corporate strategy C.A.R.E.+, this is now the right time also for a new beginning in Nivea’s brand management and creative work.” While Beirsdorf didn’t comment on the specific statement attributed to one of its marketers, the company said: “We are an international company with more than 20,000 employees with very different genders, ethnicities, orientations, backgrounds and personalities worldwide. Through our products, we touch millions of consumers around the globe every day. We know and cherish that individuality and diversity in all regards brings inspiration and creativity to our society and to us as a company. No form of discrimination, direct and indirect, is tolerated.” C.A.R.E.+ is corporate investment program Beiersdorf announced in February that includes spending of more than $80 million annually in an effort to increase the organic sales growth of its consumer business to 4 to 6 percent and earnings before interest and taxes margin to 16 to 7 percent. The breakup is hardly the first controversy Nivea and FCB have faced in recent years, amid three waves of backlash over ads critics saw as racially insensitive. It is unclear if FCB was behind the following ads. First came a 2011 Nivea for Men ad showing a clean-cut black man carrying a decapitated, bearded head with an afro, presumably representing his former self prior to using Nivea products, and the tagline “Re-civilize yourself.” Amid an uproar, Nivea quickly pulled the ad and apologized on Facebook, saying: “Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of our company.” Then in early 2017 came a Facebook post for Nivea deodorant in the Middle East showing a white woman in a white bathrobe and the headline “White Is Purity.” U.S. alt-right supporters embraced the ad on Twitter, 4chan and elsewhere. “Nivea has chosen our side,” said one since-removed Twitter post as reported by The Washington Post. Nivea apologized and took down the post, saying it wasn’t meant to offend. Six months later, Nivea faced backlash again over ads in West Africa for Natural Fairness Body Lotion promising “visibly fairer skin,” after Ghanian musician Fuse ODG criticized the ads on Instagram. This time, Nivea stuck with the ads, issuing a statement that they weren’t meant to “demean or glorify any person’s needs or preferences in skin care.” Neither the product, nor the implication that lighter skin can improve career or romantic prospects, is unusual in personal-care marketing throughout much of Asia and Africa. Asked about these ads, Beiersdorf said in a statement, “Unfortunately, there have been isolated, controversial Nivea communications over the years. We always valued the respective feedback of our consumers and consider it as a motivation to continuously learn, adapt and further improve our brand communications.” As for whether Nivea has been the center of any homophobic controversies or avoided LGBTQ+ marketing efforts in the past, Mike Wilke, an LGBTQ+ advertising historian and founder of adrespect.org, argued the opposite. He said he began noticing Nivea targeting the LGBTQ+ community with ads in 2004 and most recently the brand aired a spot in 2018 featuring Olympic skater Adam Rippon, an openly gay athlete, and Miami Dolphins’ Danny Amendola running into each other in a locker room and chatting about Nivea Men’s new body shaving stick. “They have been gay at least a couple of times that I’ve tracked,” Wilke said, suggesting either the company has recently flipped its stance on LGBTQ+ advertising, which he added would be ill advised, or “it was an uninformed comment.” He argued the recent ad with Rippon took a thoughtful creative approach by featuring “someone who’s well known in the gay community and featuring him prominently.” So the alleged comment by the Nivea employee "seems out of line with what we’ve seen for the brand,” Wilke said.

Ugly FCB-Nivea breakup follows 100-year relationship, recent controversies

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