Lush declares war on social media, will close all UK channels

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Apr 10, 2019

Lush has revealed it is closing down its social media accounts in a shock announcement on Monday, telling users it has grown “tired of fighting with algorithms”.

The cosmetics chain’s UK channels have nearly 1.2 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

“We are switching up social. Increasingly, social media is making it harder and harder for us to talk to each other directly. We are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed. So we’ve decided it’s time to bid farewell to some of our social channels and open up the conversation between you and us instead,” Lush UK tweeted.

The social media channels will remain open until next week. Then, customers will be able to communicate with the retailer via chat on the website, email or by telephone, it told its followers.

The move was heavily criticised by social media users, with some branding the decision as “bizarre”, “sad” and a “bad business move”.

“Lush has always been made up of many voices, and it’s time for all of them to be heard. We don’t want to limit ourselves to holding conversations in one place, we want social to be placed back in the hands of our communities - from our founders to our friends,” Lush explained.

“We believe we can make more noise using all of our voices across the globe because when we do we drive change, challenge norms and create a cosmetic revolution. We want social to be more about passions and less about likes.”

The company’s reputation has taken a hit since it launched a “distasteful” campaign criticising undercover policing in June last year. The action, called ‘Police Spies Out of Lives’ aimed to raise awareness of how some undercover officers had “infiltrated the lives, homes and beds of activists”.

But the campaign came under fire for attacking the police and the Police Federation called it “an insult to the hard work, professionalism and dedication of police officers throughout the UK”.

Recently, Lush opened its largest store to date in Liverpool and unveiled the first ‘naked’ store (offering zero packaging) in Manchester.