L'Oréal de Puerto Rico | 2024
L'Oréal's "Braided History" — A Map Woven Into Hair for Freedom / L'Oréal de Puerto Rico "Braided History"
There was hidden history woven into the way hair is braided.
The problem
In Puerto Rico, discrimination against Afro-descendant people over their hairstyles remains deeply rooted, and laws to ban it had been rejected over and over again.
The insight
Braids were once maps that enslaved people used to hide their escape routes. This campaign connected that fact to the pride of today's Afro-descendant community.
The idea
Working with historians and braiding experts, they recreated actual braid patterns from that era, strand by strand. These were photographed as black-and-white facing portraits, carrying the message "Our hair is history, our hair is power."
What happened
The campaign won GOLD in the Print and Publishing category at Cannes Lions 2024. In month 7 (July) of that same year, 2024, Act 1282, which bans discrimination based on hair, was passed.
Afterthought
Digging up a map that had been sleeping inside people's hairstyles ended up moving the law itself. I'm really sorry I can't show you the images.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2024
