Most parents underestimate the harmful impact of online beauty content. They think their children are too smart to be fooled by filtered images of cinched waists, flat stomachs, and flawless skin.

The reality is the opposite. Fake or not, Dove research shows that 1 in 2 girls are influenced by idealised beauty content and that it negatively impacts their self-esteem.

As the brand that seeks to promote body positivity and self-love, Dove wanted to protect girls in Canada from the toxic beauty advice they see every day and help them feel confident again.

To do that, we needed to show parents the true impact of toxic beauty messages – and get them to take action to make social media a more positive place.

We set out to reach 3 million Canadian girls, and their parents, with success being measured by reach and awareness of our message.

After recruiting and filming moms and daughters, we would seed footage of our DEEPFAKE experiment across Dove’s owned media channels.

Within, we would prompt action, encouraging audiences to reject toxic beauty advice and #DetoxYourFeed – by unfollowing negative influencers.

To reach as many parents as possible – our ultimate objective – we would use paid media to promote our message across primetime linear TV, Connected TV, Online Video and Cinema.

Connecting daughter and mom, we also promoted our message on key social media channels, the very platforms feeding the problem, pushing additional stats and figures from our research.

We launched our deepfake film on social media, targeting parents and their daughters and encouraging them to #DetoxYourFeed.

Then, we partnered with local broadcasters (Rogers) and parenting podcasters (Cat & Nat), where well-known Canadian moms spoke candidly about the effects of social media on their own lives.

In all our messages, we pushed parents to visit Dove’s website, where they could download a four-step guide on talking to kids about toxic beauty advice.

We used paid media to push our brand film across primetime linear TV, connected TV and online video to reach as many parents as possible.

Finally, we created a real-life bedroom pop-up, in Sherway Gardens, Toronto, to generate PR and talkability.

The pop-up installation was wallpapered with some of the content teens and tweens are exposed to, demonstrating the volume of messages our girls are inundated with on social media.

The reaction was incredible.

The combination of offline and online media sparked a conversation that spread like wildfire. 

Capturing national attention, #DetoxYourFeed received more than 19.5M earned impressions across news and media outlets, reaching the parents of more than 3.5M Canadian girls.

After seeing the campaign, Dove’s website saw a 51% lift in engagement, as parents clicked to download the Influencer Talk Confidence kit and watch videos about the project.

Crucially, 7 in 10 girls felt better after detoxing their feeds and unfollowing toxic beauty advice on social media.

Perhaps most importantly, however, we strengthened the dialogue between girls and the most influential people in their lives: their parents.