Dove's campaign, "The Cost of Beauty " is relevant for Creative Strategy because it demonstrates the brand's ability to adapt and stay relevant in a competitive beauty market. By addressing the negative impact of social media on self-esteem and beauty confidence, Dove created a powerful campaign that resonated with its target audience. The campaign's creative strategy successfully raised awareness about the issue and inspired action, showcasing Dove's commitment to promoting confidence and challenging unrealistic beauty standards. The innovative use of storytelling, emotional impact, and advocacy for legislative change showcase the brand's strategic approach to creating meaningful and impactful campaigns.

Dove's belief that beauty should inspire confidence rather than anxiety, established in 2004, remains true. However, Dove needed to revitalise its message to stay relevant in a rapidly changing, more competitive, and ruthless beauty market. Other brands had joined Dove in standing up for women’s confidence, but this was not enough.

The prevalence of social media has introduced unattainable beauty standards, leaving teenage girls unable to escape the pressure.

In 2021, Dove embarked on a mission to update its 20-year-old strategy and significantly impact society, highlighting overlooked threats to self-esteem and beauty confidence.

Despite some hugely successful campaigns, there is a glaring issue: the situation has not substantially improved for young girls, with the mental health crisis still raging. While Dove's proactive approach seemed effective for the brand, its true success lies in whether it benefits real girls in the real world.

Dove has been at the forefront of promoting real beauty and social impact. Market conditions played a role in the campaign's creation as Dove faced competition within the beauty industry, with other brands advocating for women's confidence and challenging beauty stereotypes with social responsibility gaining traction. Additionally, the rise of social media introduced new challenges, as it magnified the negative impact of toxic beauty content on teenage girls' self-esteem.

As pioneers in purpose-driven marketing, Dove sought to further cement its position as an advocate for social issues through this campaign. Culturally, the Cost of Beauty tapped into the growing concern surrounding the impact of social media on mental health, especially among young people, addressing the global issue of unrealistic beauty standards propagated through social media platforms, resonating with individuals across cultures, nations, and regions. However, the campaign specifically focused on the US, where legislators proposed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) to protect children from toxic beauty content. By aligning with this specific political initiative, the campaign reflected the cultural and national context of the United States' efforts to address the issue.

The Cost of Beauty campaign was strategically designed to address the cultural conversation surrounding the harmful effects of social media, support legislative change through KOSA, and revitalise Dove's brand strategy in a competitive market.

It aimed to resonate with the concerns of young girls and their parents, align with our values, and make a meaningful impact on both the brand and society.

The challenge was to combat the negative effects of toxic beauty content on children's mental health and position Dove as a brand that takes a stand on this issue.

Interpreting the client's needs and brand values involved understanding the importance of purposeful marketing and leveraging Dove's commitment to real beauty and social impact with Dove's purpose platform "Let's Change Beauty".

The target market was parents of young people concerned about social media's influence and supporting legislation to protect them.

The desired outcome was to create a successful campaign that drives awareness, engagement, and action, leading to positive change both for Dove as a brand and for the cause it supports.

Despite Dove successfully updating its brand strategy in 2021, there was one hiccup.

Toxic beauty content was still harming 3 in 5 kids.

Social media created an environment where teenage girls could not escape unrealistic beauty standards - the mental health crisis was spinning out of control. 80% of young people believe that people their age are addicted to social media, and 51% have been exposed to content encouraging restricted eating/disordered eating.

This led us to the pivotal insight: Children cannot be responsible for moderating content in the face of algorithms designed to grab and keep their attention.

Our warnings, no matter how salient, were not enough.

Parents agreed. 58% believed implementing legislation was the only way to get social media to change.

Dove's goal was to become an 'actionist' brand that goes beyond raising awareness and providing tools to make a real change.

Enter Cost of Beauty.

Focusing on the US, the campaign supported the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) to protect children from toxic beauty content with the goal of 50,000 petition signatures. By aligning with this legislation, Dove aimed to drive systemic change, becoming our most ambitious goal in Dove's campaign history.

To achieve this goal, we needed the punchiest story in the history of Dove purpose.

We created our Cost of Beauty hero film, which told the story of Mary, whose life was affected by an eating disorder triggered by social media. We see how quickly social media shapes Mary's view of her beauty, causing her mental health to struggle.

At the end, we learn this isn't just Mary's story. It's the story of millions of girls.

All the assets drove consumers to the Dove website, encouraging viewers to support our campaign for legislative change by signing a petition in support of KOSA.

The campaign generated significant momentum for KOSA, by achieving 6.6 billion US impressions, outperforming our media buy by a whopping 245%, and earned media generated 3.7 billion impressions.

The campaign surpassed its goal reaching over 101,000 petition signatures, more than double our ambition, putting pressure on lawmakers.

The bill passed unanimously through the Senate Committee.

The social value of Dove also grew, with associations like:

• “Inspires women to feel more positive about the way they look” +5%

• "Dove uses real women” +15%

• “Which brands is raising awareness about toxic beauty content” +8%

Our campaign correlated with Brand Power growth, increasing by +2.9%.

As predicted by our increase in Brand Power, our target in penetration was also dramatically surpassed, the campaign achieving a considerable increase of +4% household penetration amongst our target audience.

Finally, during the campaign period, value sales increased by 5.5%, more than doubling our target.