When Intention Isn’t Enough: What We Learned From the Kalamantina Campaig

Huda Beauty's Kalamntina collaboration - A campaign built on meaning — and a reminder that even the best intentions need clarity.

Huda Beauty's Kalamntina collaboration - A campaign built on meaning — and a reminder that even the best intentions need clarity.

Huda Beauty’s Kalamantina 🍊 lip oil, launched in collaboration with Palestinian artist and musician Saint Levant, was far more than a product launch. It was a creative expression with soul. A collaboration anchored in solidarity, heritage, and a desire to give back.

The name Kalamantina itself carries weight. Not just because it echoes Saint Levant’s song, but because the fruit—long associated with Palestinian culture—has become a quiet a symbol of land. For many Palestinians, the clementine isn't just produce; it's memory of a land they year to live on peacefully.

From the outset, the campaign had a noble goal: donate 100% of its proceeds to support Gaza. But this was true only if you read the caption and we live in a timewhere people watch more than they read.

 The original plan focused on agricultural resilience — a mission that made perfect sense given the fruit’s symbolism and the region’s longstanding challenges with access to land and farming.

But good storytelling isn’t only about meaning. Its how you communicate the story.  And in this case, that’s where the campaign faltered. The video of the launch was all about fashion, cars, music and lots of fruit going to waste.

The campaign landed at a time when Gaza’s humanitarian crisis was unfolding in real time, with every week the starvation worsens with no hope in sight.

The campaign’s intention wasn’t immediately visible — and people assumed the worst. It is somehow their right to assume so.

Criticism came swiftly. Some questioned the timing. I, amongst others, questioned the execution. Others called out what they perceived as insensitivity. But perhaps what this moment revealed most was that people aren’t always wrong to criticize and voice concerns, sometimes, good will come out of that.

To their credit, Huda Beauty and Saint Levant didn’t get defensive.  They didn’t respond with corporate vagueness and fluffly press releases that have no heart. They did the harder thing: they listened. They reassessed. And they took action. Immediate action.

They re-routed 100% of the revenue — over $210,000 — to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) to support medical relief in Gaza. That shift wasn’t a PR move. It was a commitment to impact over image. This is new-age crisis management, taking full accountability and shifting gears.

This is the power of social listening and the power of social responding. The most underrated revenue stream of our time.

And yes, if I were on that creative team — I would have changed the video. Or at the very least, given more weight to the why and the cause.

But this wasn’t a failure. It was a learning moment. And in many ways, a reminder that marketing done with heart — even when imperfect — is still worth doing.

Because the world doesn’t need perfect campaigns. It needs honest ones. Courageous ones. And ones that are willing to say: we meant well — but we can do better.

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