When Dove launched its first #RealBeauty campaign over 15 years ago, celebrating “normal” women and their bodies was a revolution. Today, the body positivity movement has reached mainstream brands and media but bodies that don’t comply with mainstream beauty standards are still the targets of hatred, especially on social media.

Dove wanted to raise awareness on the issue of body shaming on social media, engage their target audience (women aged 18-50) and create conversation around the topic, which would also elevate the Dove brand and its purpose.

Objectives

• Raise awareness around the issue of online body shaming

• Engage target audience (women aged 18-50)

• Elevate the Dove brand and its purpose

• Increase landing page visits

• Increase social media engagement with Dove

With Bodylove – The Social Experiment, we brought an Instagram post to 3D life, with a visual so compelling that it couldn’t be ignored.

The anonymity of social media has led to a terrible rise in body shaming. The internet is experienced as a lawless space, where the ordinary rules of etiquette and accountability don’t apply.

Negative comments are devastating to the recipients, but the perpetrators feel no consequences. Many people who would never body shame someone, can become unintentionally complicit in the abuse as they don’t intervene online the way they might do in real life.

The 7 x 9 foot box contained a live model in just her underwear and a cardigan, and featured a “comment section” showing hateful body shaming comments taken from online.

The Exhibit confronted onlookers and gave them an opportunity to respond by countering the hate with positive messages of their own.

Dove has a diverse audience of women aged 18 - 50 interested in positive beauty.

The live installation was the centrepiece from which all other aspects flowed.

Shareable & Snackable

• 2min film that could be shared on Dove’s owned, paid and earned channels, & consumers.

• Teaser clip was used by influencers with links to the landing page.

• We provided shareable content pieces with instructions on how to report body shaming.

Channels

• We targeted the tendentially younger, social-media-savvy audience with content creators on Instagram

• We targeted older, more traditional-media-oriented group with paid and earned media in women's and lifestyle magazines.

Diverse audience

• We included high-reach celeb influencers and those with particularly engaged audiences to maximize engagement & reach

• We worked with influencers with different looks, backgrounds and stories to tell.

• We offered credibility through survey data and interviews with Dove's body image expert.

Installation

Participants were asked to enter the square, reflect on the piece, add positive comments to the boards to counter the hate, and interact with the women in the installation. They were then asked to share their thoughts.

Film

A short film captured reactions & reflections. Prominently featuring on Dove’s owned channels, in earned & paid media coverage and linked to by influencers, it encouraged viewers to stand up to body shaming and stand by the body shamed.

Content

Influencers included a TV celebrity which enabled us to reach far wider audiences. They shared their experiences of body shaming and asked their followers to stand with Dove.

Educate

Dove educated its audience on actions they could take to fight body shaming and stand with the body shamed. Actions included reporting comments via the social platforms and adding their own body positive or neutral comments to counter and drown the negativity.

• 75 million total media reach

• German publications Freundin and Jolie specifically reported dwell time of 3 and 5 times higher than their respective average.

• 60K landing page views for Dove

• Influencers generated 500K online video views, 15,000 Swipe Ups, and a reach of 4.4 million.

• 5 X higher interaction rate than other Dove campaigns (Unilever’s internal reporting)

• Twice as many ‘shares’ as other Dove campaigns

All the influencer’s posts exceeded performance benchmarks, with post performances of 19 – 148% (Dove benchmark: 9%), and 3 – 17% Engagement Rate (benchmark: 2%).

In messages to the influencers, followers shared their own experiences. Some related that they started reporting body shaming, and many voiced their appreciation.

“An epic message and I have also already reported a hate comment that was immediately taken into account. Body Shaming, racism and discrimination must generally be put a stop ?? I do no longer look away thank you ??”