Since the film Evolution, Dove have been fighting unrealistic beauty standards. Sadly, those same unrealistic beauty standards still exist today and it’s far worse: instead of the media distorting their images, the young girls are doing to themselves. A disturbing trend that has been exacerbated by social media pressures and phone time during the pandemic. In fact, 80% of girls are now using retouching apps by the age of 13. This level of distortion is causing selfie dysmorphia, a rise in cosmetic surgery and has even been cited as the lead cause for an increase in teen suicides.

Through the experiences of real girls, we created a campaign that shined a light on the pressures of social media and the dangers of retouching apps to children around the world. “Reverse Selfie” follows the true story of Grace and the editing apps she uses to achieve the ‘ideal’ selfie. The same harmful and readily available editing apps that are in the hands of billions of girls. Every filter and retouched blemish were authentically recreated based on the tools Grace and the girls from our cast use to edit their selfies every day. Through film, print, social and body positive campaigner, Lizzo, our campaign called on parents and guardians to have the ‘selfie talk’ and educate a girl they know in the dangers of social media and editing apps.

The dangers of social media are widely documented, but the harm of apps and filters are just starting to emerge. The scale and impact of selfie dysmorphia and body dissatisfaction are often not taken seriously but it has become a public health emergency affecting millions of girls around the world. We wanted to start the debate and drive awareness of this important issue at a societal level, especially among parents who were not aware of the harm retouching apps and photo filters have on girls’ self-esteem. Our strategy to drive talkability around the issue was to create an emotional hook for parents that revealed the pressures of selfie culture on social media from the girls’ perspective.

We launched the campaign on the 20th of April with the help of body positive campaigner and international superstar, Lizzo. We have since rolled this out in 15 different markets around the world across TV, digital, print and OOH. The premiere of ‘Reverse selfie’ at Dove submit had a reach of 78 million, driving over 20,000 Confident Kit downloads. So far, the campaign has earnt 6 billion global impressions.

Surpassing its predecessor, Evolution, our global campaign spanned 15 different countries, reaching billions of people. Launching with the help of Lizzo, we drove action calling on parents, guardians and teachers to have the Selfie Talk. Expanding the campaign on Tik-Tok through the hashtag #NoDigitalDistortion, we have reached 66M users. We are also proud to say the campaign is now being used as an educational tool to spread awareness.

6 billion impressions.

1.9 billion impressions in first two days.

20.6 million organic impressions in first 7 days.