So on 24 April, 9 excited students, and 1 nervous lecturer boarded a flight and were on their way to make their dreams come true. Upon landing it was straight off to sound check where the final touches were made and the adrenaline began to flow. A jovial dinner, a few glasses of wine, one last practice, and the 3 teams crawled into bed ready to wait the day for which they had worked so hard.
How it works is that L'Oreal selects the colleges/universities and they are all given the same brand, this year that brand was The Body Shop. Each group had to come up with a new and innovative product or product range that still held true to The Body Shop values. (These values are to activate self-esteem, protect our planet, against animal testing, support community trade and defend human rights.)The teams then present in their various countries (ours being Joburg) and the judges choose one team to represent their respective countries at the international finals in Paris.
On the morning of the 25th, the AAA Cape Town teams walked into L'Oreal offices united and ready to conquer! Much coffee was consumed and many jokes told to calm the nerves. Finally it all began and 9 teams presented their concepts to a panel of judges as each group was ticked off the tension grew and hearts pounded. Who would win this opportunity of a lifetime?
After all was said and done the judges deliberated and called back 9 highly strung groups back in for their decision. In 3rd place - Team La Vida (a team from AAA Cape Town and my group), in 2nd place - Team Organ-ique Imzansi (AAA Cape Town) and in 1st place - Team Gaia also AAA Cape Town! Yes that's right AAA Cape Town took all the places and dominated the competition.
Although we came 3rd, I am so proud of all of the teams and am simply ecstatic that it is an AAA Cape Town team that will be representing South Africa at the international finals. A big thank you to our lecturer Anthea Whitehead who pushed us to be the best, to Tanya Smith from L'Oreal who put the L'Oreal Brandstorm together and finally to L'Oreal who gave us this amazing opportunity!
