Dove, in the US, has been at the forefront of the self-esteem and beauty conversation since the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. But by 2020, things had changed. Other brands were encroaching on Dove’s position, and beauty had moved to social media.

The beauty world was now faster moving and more judgemental and Dove was nowhere to be seen. We needed to re-establish Dove’s authority and challenge today’s culture of unrealistic beauty standards through the Dove Self-Esteem Project (DSEP). We knew the rise in social media usage correlated with falling beauty confidence; Our strategic challenge was to understand why.

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

Dove, in the US, has been at the forefront of self-esteem and beauty since the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. Our strategy has targeted mothers and daughters in different but interconnected ways. Dove purpose campaigns create a social benefit for young women and girls who are most impacted by the beauty industry’s toxicity and threats to self-esteem, which in turn builds brand affinity, generating a commercial impact on all women who recognize these threats.

But by 2020, things had changed. Other brands were encroaching on Dove’s position, and the beauty world had moved to social media. The result was that brand equity measures were starting to slip. We were losing brand distinctiveness, an early-warning sign of an oncoming decline in sales and awareness of Dove Self-Esteem Project was at 17%. We needed to update our brand idea and prove our approach could still be relevant and effective.

CREATIVE CHALLENGE

We needed to answer the question; What does ‘Real Beauty’ mean in a world of social media lenses, filters, face-tuning, and ring-light selfies?

Despite our belief that social media was creating a harmful beauty environment, many teens felt it positively impacted their self-image. To uncover the truth, we commissioned a survey into girls online social media and selfie habits.

We found 80% of girls had distorted the way they look online using retouching apps by age 13. Filtering and photo-editing apps were pressuring girls into altering their images to the point they were hardly recognisable, damaging their self-esteem.

Our findings revealed that selfies were now the biggest threats to self-esteem. The level of distortion was causing selfie dysmorphia, a rise in cosmetic surgery, and had been cited as the lead cause of an increase in teen suicides. We had to impact selfie-culture but do it in a way that didn't alienate our target audience of mothers or their daughters.

SOLUTION

Our strategy was to reveal the lengths girls go to in manipulating their selfies and ask parents to have conversations with their daughters about social media with our Dove Self-Esteem Project accredited toolkit.

EXECUTION

Our creative idea showed the damage these apps can do to self-esteem by updating our award-winning 2004 film ‘Evolution’ in reverse, showing the use of retouching apps to manipulate selfies.

We used TV to reach millions of parents in the US, demonstrating the dangers and harm of today's retouching apps and showing the damage they could cause to teenagers.

When tackling such a contentious subject, authenticity was essential. We cast young girls, not-actors, who used retouching apps regularly. We had them use the same techniques they use every day to retouch their selfies. Our launch film ran in reverse, ending by emphasizing our girl’s true beauty.

OOH used split portraits mirroring the aesthetics of retouching apps, allowing us to show selfies that were natural on one side while heavily manipulated and distorted on the other.

Grammy Award-winning superstar Lizzo supported the campaign by posting an unfiltered photo of herself naked, igniting the conversation.