On September 21, a sea of red boxes appeared across beauty and wellness social media feeds featuring the phrase, “This is a #CodeRed4Climate.” The digital activation, timed to coincide with Zero Emissions Day, was created by Versed in partnership with Youth To The People and Call4Climate with the goal of bringing the industry together to advocate for solutions to climate change. Call4Climate is a project of nonprofit media lab, Fossil Free Media, that was established to offer a straightforward way for individuals to call or write their representatives to campaign for climate action.

The brands temporarily changed their icons to red and halted all social media postings outside of the #CodeRed4Climate call-to-action imagery. The group postings encouraged consumers to call lawmakers regarding new policies in the following areas:

  • Clean Electricity Payment Program
  • Directing 40% of funding to frontline communities
  • Ending subsidies for fossil fuel corporations
  • Formation of a Civilian Climate Corps that puts people to work

Collectively the brands’ social followings exceed 40 million.

The marketing blackout was also accompanied by an open letter to Congress encouraging lawmaker action and pledging continued climate-responsible business activities of the collective, which ranges from small and medium-sized independent brands to publicly listed companies. The letter reads, “As business leaders, employers, community members and parents, we join you in caring deeply about the future human and economic wellbeing of our great country. But it’s not enough to care. We, together with the majority of both Democrats and Republicans, think you should be doing more to reduce the impacts of global warming. You must act, now.” To read the full letter and view the full list of brand supporters, please click here.

As part of the initiative a number of the brands, including Versed, Youth To The People and Tower 28 Beauty, shut down their ecommerce sites for the day.

“It’s not enough to care. Humankind must act—and to avoid disastrous consequences for generations to come, we must act together,” said Melanie Bender, leader of CodeRed4Climate and Founding President of Versed. “Beauty is an industry of trendmakers. We want to use that influence to kickstart a movement of climate responsibility and action—before it’s too late.”