What Not To Do: A Communication Crisis

Over the years, I’ve seen brands mishandle communication, but Body Minute's reaction to a simple POV video by Laurène Lévy takes the cake.

For those who live in France, or perhaps even in Switzerland, Body Minute (or Skin Minute in Switzerland), has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. What it all boils down to is a hate campaign against a French content creator, Laurène Lévy.

In today’s day and age, e-reputation is everything. Customer reviews don’t just come through the traditional platforms such as Trust Pilot anymore, but come through social media - and not just posts, but videos too. We have seen influencers be brutally honest about their purchases from clothing brands or furniture companies, and this can now be done through video. With TikTok, the POV (point of view) trend has been a constant on our feeds for the last 2 years, and instead of speaking directly in front of a camera and opting for a “Storytime” video, some influencers have opted for a POV, reenacting their life experiences.

Let’s get into what has happened with Body Minute and Laurene Levy…

What is Body Minute?

For those who may not be based in France or Switzerland, Body Minute (or Skin Minute) is a company that runs beauty salons across the two countries. Their promise? No appointment needed, you can just turn up and get hair removal, skin care, pedicures and manicures with expert beauticians. The company launched in 1998, and according to their website, they have 450 salons. Their affordable prices have attracted clients, as well as the fact that you apparently don’t need an appointment (I said apparently, we’ll get into that in a moment). They have 64 salons in Paris, 11 salons in Marseille and 6 in Lyon.

Who is Laurène Lévy?

Laurène Lévy is a French content creator and at the time she posted the video, she worked in an advertising agency. Nowadays, she’s a freelance content creator and consultant, and runs a TikTok account with 328.5K followers. During her time at an advertising agency, she started posting videos on TikTok and Instagram about her life, her opinions, and one day in 2022, she posted a POV about her experience at a Body Minute salon in Paris.

Where the problems started

In October 2022, Laurène Lévy posted a POV video on TikTok about a previous experience with Body Minute. More specifically with 2 salons - one in the 11th district of Paris and one near Gare de Lyon. Her video was a parody of allegedly passive-aggressive comments made by staff members during her visits. Another key point brought up in the video is that she didn’t book an appointment - she was allegedly told by staff that they were going to prioritise clients having booked in advance and that she would have a 45 minute wait, despite their regular promise in their advertising that you could just walk in.

I feel like personally, it is always a bit intimidating going into these types of places. As someone who is quite self-conscious, even getting a massage is a big deal for me. But in a company that boasts that it is “run by women for women”, you would expect some female solidarity, and therefore no comments about clients’ bodies for example.

At the time, this video POV gained 30K views. I have seen some of Laurène Levy’s videos on my TikTok feed, but at that time, I don’t think the video didn’t have that much power to “destroy” Body Minute. After all, they are across 2 countries - not everyone had seen that video.

What happened next?

The video ended making its way to the CEO of Body Minute and senior members of management. It is on 21st February 2023 that Body Minute sent an internal communication out asking their staff to report her video to TikTok, on the basis of slander and lies. This internal communication was later sent to Laurène Lévy, and also well-known Instagram account, Balancetonagency, that exposes companies with poor practices, whether it’s to do with communication, production or HR within a company.

That same day, Body Minute sent a recorded delivery letter to Laurène’s employer to try and intimidate her. They were convinced that Laurène posted this video because she was working with a competitor. This ended up not being the case… She was merely expressing her point of view, literally.

Just 5 days after, Laurène received death and rape threats in her work email inbox, being called a “slut” and be threatened with all kinds of abuse. The message is shocking, and nothing warrants that kind of hainous language.

After the summer holidays, Body Minute called on bailiffs to inspect Laurène’s workplace and go through all the computers to see whether it was Laurène’s employer that asked her to post the original video. As predicted, nothing was found.

The saga continues…

Over a year after, Body Minute’s lawyers addressed a formal letter to Laurène’s home. 2 months after this, in December 2024, they decided to try to sue her for defamation. December seems to have been a busy month for the company, as Body Minute’s CEO, Jean-Christophe David, sent an internal communication asking staff to defend the company on social media and insult her. He claims that the people supporting Laurène have never worked a day in their lives, and that the video insults all beauticians. He also came up with the creative nickname “Laurène La Haine” (hate-filled Laurène), which has been used by them internally but also externally…

2025 has barely started and Body Minute posted videos on the 31st December 2024 and the 3rd January 2025 about Laurène on TikTok, calling her “Laurène La Haine”, and using old videos from influencers that defended Body Minute years before these events occured.

The result?

I honestly do not know what Body Minute expected from this kind of reaction. Many people have commented on their videos to support Laurène Lévy, but allegedly they have all been deleted, as there only seems to be comments defending the company. This has made national news in France, with media outlets such as 20 Minutes covering the story.

My thoughts

The problem is, more people know about the original video now that Body Minute has given Laurène Lévy a lot of exposure, and behaved in a very negative way. Many users have commented saying it is in fact the Streisand effect, trying to censor Laurène but they are really helping her grow her community. By doing this, they have also destroyed their reputation - Laurène isn’t responsible for that. By adopting bullying tactics and intimidation, they have shown themselves up. Their CEO encouraging people to turn on a young woman who dared to say she had a bad experience is misogynous, trying to intimidate her into silence.

After many comments, they came back with another video saying that they will withdraw their wish to sue her if she takes down the video. I think we are a long way past that, she received death threats, they tried to ruin her career - if anyone should suing for defamation, it should be Laurène.

This situation is a stark reminder that in today’s day and age, every review, good or bad, needs to be taken into account and handled with care. E-reputation is one of the foundations for any business, and a hate campaign is no way to handle what is essentially, a bad review.