‘The power of partnership’

REESE Witherspoon, award-winning actor and founder of Hello Sunshine, used her Cannes Lions session — shared with cosmetics brand e.l.f. — to reveal a new teen-focused sister brand called Sunnie. Explaining how Sunnie came about, Witherspoon said: “Hello Sunshine has been around for seven years and now has 160 million followers across online platforms. I wanted to take our ideology and look at what we could do for the younger generation.” 

Hello Sunshine did extensive research “and also built an advisory board of teenagers. We wanted to hear from them so we could co-create a community that could be online and offline. And I’m proud to say that e.l.f. is going to be our anchor sponsor.” 

Representing e.l.f. on stage was chief marketing officer Kory Marchisotto, who asked Witherspoon about Hello Sunshine’s track record of empowering female voices. The Big Little Lies star recalled:

“Back in 2011, I had been an actor for 20 years but I was still reading scripts that were borderline misogynistic. I read one particularly bad one and called my agent to say how awful it was — and that I didn’t want me or my daughter to see it. "

"She told me every actress in Hollywood wanted the part and I found that eye opening. I realised that when women are not part of the creative process from the inception, they get stories that don’t serve them or reflect their realities.” 

After some time spent “complaining about the problem”, Witherspoon took action — by optioning books to turn into movies and series. “The first two were Wild and Gone Girl. They made $600m at the box office and received three Oscar nominations in the first year.” 

Having enjoyed considerable success with the HBO series Big Little Lies, she started to recognise “the power of partnership, working with Nicole Kidman on that series and then with Jennifer Aniston on The Morning Show.

The next step was collaborating with brands. So we launched Solar, our in-house agency. We work with companies like e.l.f. to create content and experiences.” Witherspoon said social media had played a huge part in her own journey towards empowerment.

“You’d be hard pressed to find an actress of my generation who didn’t feel ignored, belittled or objectified at some point. "

"But social platforms allowed me to write my own narrative. Part of the reason Hello Sunshine has been so successful is because it gives women the agency to tell their own story in their own words.”