Dove created a purpose-driven campaign to drive awareness of toxic influencers in the beauty space and their impact on young girls.
Objective:
While teens and parents claim they're aware of toxic beauty content, they may underestimate the impact these unrealistic standards can have on their self-esteem. Dove's objective was to:
Target Audience:
Harmful advice and trends promoted by toxic influencers are creating a self-esteem crisis among teenage girls: ninety-two percent want to change the way they look, and one in two girls follow an influencer that makes them feel less confident.
Parents pay attention to who their kids hang out with in real life, but don't always consider the influencers they are spending time with online. Lack of understanding about the barrage of influencers hinders real conversations on this crucial issue.
Audience surveying revealed a troubling disconnect between parents and the online content their daughters consume: forty percent of mothers could not name one influencer their daughter follows. Social media algorithms that feed young girls toxic beauty advice are showing parents completely different content on the same platforms.
Creative Strategy:
Dove's strategy began with an insight true to all parents: you would never let your daughter hear harmful things in your own home. The brand discovered that 59 percent of girls have felt better after unfollowing idealized beauty content from social media influencers.
Using deepfake-technology, Dove developed videos of mothers repeating toxic rhetoric from influencers using their own voice. The real mother and her daughter viewed the deepfake video resulting in personal reflection, inspiring action to #DetoxYourFeed.
Dove focused on:
Context:
Detox Your Feed is part of the Dove Self-Esteem Project, created from a vision in which beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. The brand reached over 82 million young people with self-esteem education. By 2030, Dove aims to help 250 million people build their positive body image. Dove's mission is to ensure that the next generation grows up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look — helping young people raise their self-esteem and realize their full potential.
Dove partnered with leading experts in the fields of psychology, health, and body image to create a program of evidence-based resources, including parenting advice, to help young people form healthy friendships, overcome body image issues, and be their best selves.
Overall Campaign Execution:
Once the facial and auditory data had been gathered, Dove worked to build five hyper-realistic deepfakes that looked and sounded exactly like the mothers. Utilizing comprehensive social listening ensured the representation of girls' experiences online was true-to-life and relatable.
Dove's launch strategy drove mass awareness and engagement of "Toxic Influence," the campaign's hero film, through custom integrations with trusted partners.
Dove tapped the Today Show's Jenna and Hoda Hour for an unfiltered conversation with a mental health expert, celebrity mom, and real generation Z girl.
To further build credibility with moms and bring attention to the issue, Dove partnered with The New York Times for mini editorial stories highlighting shocking stats around influencers and self-esteem.
Mobile Execution:
The brand further amplified the message through print, cinema, and social media influencer posts to keep the #DetoxYourFeed movement top of mind and drive parents to Dove's hub for downloadable resources.
The campaign drove millions of parents to digital tools and a downloadable Confidence Kit on the Dove Self-Esteem Project website, where the average dwell time in the week after the film launch increased by 100 percent to over four minutes.
The film was organically covered by media and television outlets across the world and went viral on three continents. In the first 10 days, the campaign achieved 1.6 billion earned impressions in the U.S. alone, and earned a 99 percent positive campaign sentiment, which is especially impressive given the toxicity of the subject matter and the use of controversial deepfake technology.
The campaign also generated 13.6 million organic views in across the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Brazil, and is still in market in the U.S. It is currently on pace to become Dove's most viewed and most successful purpose-led campaign in history.
