Dove Launches New Campaign To Battle Against The Selfie Era

The Unilever-owned personal care brand, is renewing the fight for real beauty standards by pushing into the activist digital era with a hard-hitting new campaign.

At the heart of the new Dove campaign is a 60 second film, ‘Reverse Selfie’, which is released online today ahead of a paid-for push starting on 26 April and is a sequel to Dove’s seminal 2006 film ‘Evolution’, which highlighted the false and unrealistic nature of the beauty ideals perpetuated by the advertising industry and the media.

The crucial issue of women and girls’ self-esteem is once again top of the agenda, as Dove uses its new global platform to highlight the widespread damage caused by the trend for heavily edited selfies in Ogilvy’s new campaign for the brand.

‘Reverse Selfie’ begins with an image that a young woman has posted of herself on social media. The action then rewinds, reversing all the tweaks and staging that have gone into creating that image, and revealing the shockingly young girl behind the picture.

First to go is the filter which lets the woman choose impossibly full, perfectly coiffed locks, then we lose the tweaks to her chin, nose and eyes. Touch-ups used to remove a blemish disappear next, and then the woman’s lips are un-plumped until they return to reality. Then we see the removal of the hairspray and makeup the woman applied before taking the picture and suddenly we understand the shocking truth – it’s not a woman whose image we’ve been watching, but a girl barely into her teens.

‘The pressure of social media is harming our girls’ self-esteem.’ the copy reads. ‘Let’s reverse the damage’.

Paid media begin on 26 April in multiple markets, including the USA, across TV, print, digital and social.

Alessandro Manfredi, executive vice president, Dove says: “Fifteen years after the launch of our iconic Evolution film addressing image manipulation in advertising, this new film tackles the issue of digital distortion again but this time, through the lens of retouching apps. Now that social media has grown to be part of our everyday lives, digital distortion is happening more than ever and tools once only available to the professionals can now be accessed by young girls at the touch of a button without regulation. Girls all around the world have begun to feel the pressure to edit and distort how they look, to create something ‘perfect’ which cannot be achieved in real life. After a year of increased screen-time, there’s never been a more important time to act. Dove wants to change this by highlighting this issue and providing free tools for parents and carers, to help the kids in their lives navigate social media in a positive way."

Daniel Fisher, global ECD on Unilever at Ogilvy and WPP, says “At the time that ‘Evolution’ was released, the beauty industry was seen as doing the most damage to women’s self-esteem, but since then the world has evolved and now it’s selfie apps and the pressures of social media that pose the biggest threats. Not enough people are talking about the issue but hopefully this campaign will change that. As the father of two young daughters myself, I really hope it can make a difference.’

This 2021 campaign marks the beginning of a more activist chapter for Dove, as the brand steps up its efforts to change the toxic nature of the beauty industry and highlight the ever-mounting number of societal threats to the self-esteem of young women and girls across the world.

‘Reverse Selfie’ was directed by Benito Montorio through Independent, and the original photograph is by Sophie Harris-Taylor, who is known for her natural, candid images.

The star of the film, Grace, was cast partly because she has first-hand experience of the issues the film tackles. To make it authentic, the photo which features in ‘Reverse Selfie’ film and the print executions was created with the same retouching app that is used by millions of teenage girls.

CREDITS

Alessandro Manfredi, global Dove, executive vice president,

Sophie van Ettinger, global brand vice president, Dove Masterbrand

Edo Briola, global brand director, Dove Masterbrand

Hugo Rawlinson, global brand manager, Dove

Alix Colin, global brand manager, Dove

Daniel Fisher global executive creative director, Unilever

Juliana Paracencio, global creative director, Ogilvy

Liam Bushby, art director, Ogilvy

Alison Steven, copywriter, Ogilvy

Ollie Jarrott, head of copy, Ogilvy

Matt Nankivell, head of art, Ogilvy

Sian Hughes, design lead integrated, Ogilvy

Jo Bacon Global Business Lead, WPP Unilever, Ogilvy

Sam Pierce, global managing partner, Ogilvy

Georgie Howard, global business director, Ogilvy

Grace Boyle, account manager, Ogilvy

Zahra Mair, project manager, Ogilvy

James Brook-Partridge, head of integrated production (Unilever), Ogilvy

Sally Lipsius, film producer, Ogilvy

Sue Lee Stern, film producer, Ogilvy

Sarah Thomson, head of art production (Unilever), Ogilvy

Chloe Jahanshahi, art producer, Ogilvy

Ben Kay, chief strategy officer, Ogilvy

Ila De Melloa Kamath, strategy partner, Ogilvy

Cristina Diago, strategist, Ogilvy

Justin Jackson, senior social strategist, Ogilvy

Production Partners

Benito Montorio, director

Steve Annis, director of photography

Verity White, executive producer

Simon Eakhurst, producer

Sam Jones, editor, The Quarry

Scott Crane, editor, The Quarry

Phil Oldham, VFX supervisor and lead flame artist, Absolute

Lucas Warren, VFX Artist, Absolute

Tom Clapp, VFX Artist, Absolute

Carl Godwin-Alvarez, VFX Artist Absolute

Jonas McQuiggan, motion graphics and design, Absolute

Sally Heath, executive producer, Absolute

Munzie Thind, engineer, Grand Central Studios

Philip Kelin, composer/arranger, Big Sync

Sophie Harris-Taylor, photographer, Swerve Represents

Lucy Barbour Stills, producer, Swerve Represents

Justin Shurmer, retoucher, The Forge