Lush quit Instagram and Facebook — it cost £10M and the company crept back to social

In November 2021, Lush, the UK-based handmade cosmetics retailer, shut down its Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok accounts. Co-founder and CEO Mark Constantine said the decision was driven by internal Facebook research showing that Instagram worsened body image issues and mental health problems in teenage girls. 'I'm happy to lose £10m by quitting Facebook,' Constantine told the Guardian. The company had more than 10 million followers across its Facebook and Instagram accounts at the time.

The decision was not Lush's first attempt at leaving social media. The company had tried to quit in 2019 but was forced back when the pandemic closed its stores and it needed social media to communicate with customers. Constantine insisted the 2021 exit was genuine, calling it 'a real attempt that will be reversed only if the platforms change their policies.' He closed his own personal Facebook account to demonstrate commitment.

Lush did not leave all social platforms — it retained Twitter and YouTube accounts, which it considered less harmful. The company also continued to use its own app and email newsletter to reach customers. Constantine estimated that social media accounted for only a small fraction of Lush's total sales, making the decision financially manageable.

By 2023, Lush had quietly returned to Instagram, posting content with a reduced presence. The return was not announced — the accounts simply reappeared. The company never fully reversed the 2021 decision, but the return acknowledged that completely abandoning social media was operationally difficult in the long run.

Lush walked away from 10M followers and £10M in sales to avoid complicity, but by 2023 it quietly returned, finding the exit unsustainable.

Lush's CEO believed Facebook and Instagram caused real harm to teenage girls' mental health and that using them to sell products was complicity. The company chose principle over profit.

The £10M cost estimate was manageable because social media was a small part of Lush's sales channel. The company had its own app, email, and physical stores as alternatives.

Lush found it could not stay off social media permanently. The 2021 exit was a genuine attempt, but the company returned quietly by 2023 — even a principled brand cannot fully escape the platforms.

A principled decision to quit social media is a statement, not a strategy. Lush's £10M walk was genuine, but also temporary — the platforms it left were the same ones it needed to stay in business.