Dove Invites the World to Take a Stand and Turn Your Back to Digital Distortion

Dove is encouraging people to #TurnYourBack on the new Bold Glamour filter as part of its mission to create a #NoDigitalDistortion movement.

The influencer-led campaign, developed by Ogilvy and DAVID, is kicking off with content creators sharing how they personally feel about the Bold Glamour filter and the damage it can do (and is doing) to social users. The Bold Glamour filter presents a concerning ideal of ‘beauty’ – one that looks real, too real. In the seven days since it launched, the hashtag has been viewed more than 365M times (probably more by now). 

The campaign is galvanising people to stand together and physically turn their backs on this harmful form of digital distortion – see Dove’s post here. Examples of content creators who have already posted #TurnYourBack are here, here, here, and here. The influencer-led campaign will continue to roll out with additional large scale digital content and OOH executions. 

Through research done by the Dove Self-Esteem Project 38% of girls in the US say they can’t live up to the beauty standards that influencers project on social media, and 80% say they have already applied a filter or used a retouching app to change the way they look in their photos by age 13. As a result, 48% of girls who distort their photos regularly have lower body esteem compared to 28% of girls who don’t. More detail in the attached release.

The filter launched while Ogilvy was hosting a global creative meeting with members of its creative community from around the world. The brief was put out as a Borderless Brief to the creative community and in less than 24 hours they agency had over 250 slides worth of ideas. The end result is a product of the borderless creativity that drives Ogilvy’s global creative network. In the end, the team rallied around the idea for #TurnYourBack, which was created by DAVID Madrid and Ogilvy UK with production assistance from DAVID São Paulo.

Liz Taylor, Ogilvy’s global chief creative officer, said, “The irony is not lost on me that I learned about this filter while standing in a room of global creatives talking about the ways we can use emerging technologies to create a positive impact. When technology penetrates culture in harmful ways, we have a moral obligation to stand up and take action. The Bold Glamour filter reinforces the toxic beauty standards that Dove has been working to abolish. Glamour has never been about conforming to just one look or one standard, and we need to galvanise people to take a stand against the damage that digital distortion is having on young people. Watching how our team came together with passion, fight, and true borderless creativity to take on this issue was a powerful example of how together we can change beauty.”

Daniel Fisher, global executive creative director at Ogilvy, said, “Watching how we came together as a global network to turn this around in six days from brief to going live gave me goosebumps and brought back memories of ‘Courage is Beautiful.’ Like that work, this campaign is hugely timely and important, and I hope it will go on to make a similar impact. Filters like this might feel like a bit of fun but they are potent tools that are destroying the self-esteem of millions of young girls.”

Saulo Rocha, chief creative officer at DAVID Madrid, said, “We realised that the best way to face this concerning problem was to actually turn our backs, because if we don’t lend social media our faces, they can’t distort our concept of beauty. It’s a simple, yet powerful, gesture. And we hope that it can make a positive impact in the life of young women all across the globe."

Rahul Titus, global head of influence at Ogilvy, said, “This campaign is very special to our team especially given our recent initiative around not working with influencers that distort their bodies or faces. Influencers create culture and as an influencer industry we have a duty of care to the millions of people that tune into the content we put out. #TurnYourBack is a perfect example of how we can be part of the solution.”

Firdaous El Honsali, global vice president of external communications at Dove, said, “While social media filters can be a source of creativity and self-expression, Bold Glamour goes beyond ‘play.’ Tools once only available to professionals can now be accessed by young girls at the touch of a button and without regulation. At Dove, we are committed to #NoDigitalDistortion in any of our marketing and advertising so that we can support a more positive environment on social media that is representative of real, authentic beauty. When young people distort their images, they distort their minds too. We are calling on our community to join us to turn their backs to the toxic Bold Glamour filter and stand up for real beauty. Because real beauty is bold!”