It only takes eight minutes of scrolling before a teen sees cosmetic procedure content in her social feed. Today’s teens are targeted and bombarded with toxic content that normalizes invasive treatments and pressures them to fit the latest narrow beauty standards. Now, teens are increasingly turning to cosmetic injectables to alter their appearance, even though their faces are still developing.

In Canada, there is no minimum age requirement for cosmetic injectables, leading to a lowered average age of first-time patients. In fact, over 50,000 cosmetic injectable procedures were performed on 14 to 17-year-old Canadians last year.

The objective of our campaign was to not only visualize the scale of this alarming trend, but to raise support for legislative change.

As the largest provider of self-esteem education of its kind, Dove’s Self-Esteem Project has been committed to helping build the confidence in young girls for almost 20 years, so they can be better equipped to face harmful beauty ideals.

To visualize the extent of Canadian teen cosmetic injectables use, we created a special build, installation made of 50,151 medical-grade syringes — the same kind used for Botox and dermal filler procedures. Each syringe represents the number of cosmetic injections received by 14 to 17-year-old Canadians teen last year.

Target Audience

The over 2MM Canadian parents with teenage girls

Approach

Decade after decade, impressionable teens have been influenced by current trends.

Today, they feel pressured to conform to new beauty standards they see on social media. In an effort to fit these toxic beauty trends they see in their social feeds, teens are increasingly turning to invasive procedures like cosmetic injectables. Though the current beauty standards may change over time, The Dove Self-Esteem Project has always aimed to help young people overcome body image issues and fulfill their potential.

Our strategy: expose a current toxic beauty trend occurring among Canadian teens.

The non-traditional, installation was exhibited on April 4, 2023 at Square One Shopping Centre in Toronto, Canada.

A placard with a QR code, next to the Injectable Billboard, directed visitors to a landing page where they could easily sign an online petition.

Online film and social content were launched on Dove Canada’s social channels to continue to drive awareness of this alarming trend and get more signatures.

The campaign ran in Canada between April 4 – June 11.

The installation was seen around the world and raised awareness about the alarming trend of Canadian teens undergoing cosmetic injectable procedures. The discussion landed on the positive side and spurred support of legislation.

100% positive sentiment

76MM social media impressions

74,000+ signatures

130K visitors