2023 Winner
SilverBest in CSR
Unilever (Dove)
"Cost of Beauty"
RSM / PHD
"Cost of Beauty"
RSM / PHD
Over the years, Dove has taken a stand on the most critical issues in the areas of body image and beauty representation.
New research from Dove highlights social media's deep damage, notably affecting teens' mental health, causing anxiety, self-confidence issues, and body dysmorphia.
And the research identified an awareness gap – parents didn’t realize how social media was impacting even their own kids.
The goal was to close this gap, raising awareness and motivating Canadians to address youth mental health impacted by social media, providing a positive path forward for parents and caregivers.
While social media can be a powerful source of creativity and self-expression, it is also harming the health of more than half of Canadian kids.
2023 Dove Self-Esteem Project Research for Kids’ Online Safety reveals a youth mental crisis
fueled by social media.
Studies show that 1 in 2 teens report negative mental health impacts from harmful social media content, 3 in 4 teens say social media makes them want to change their appearance and awareness is lacking – 8 in 10 parents believe people underestimate the severity of social media's impact on mental health, with ½ of parents underestimating its impact on their own child.
Dove’s goal was to close the awareness gap and empower Canadians to push for legislative change to address this youth mental health crisis caused by social media. Dove knew that to achieve this, parents and caregivers needed to understand the depth of the toxic impacts of social media.
Their strategy involved creating a platform to showcase the crisis's impact through personal stories of those affected the most, including doctors, researchers, parents, and deeply impacted youth. These experiences were integrated across RSM brands and culminated in a dedicated Cityline show on the realities faced by teens today.
The purpose-driven campaign educated a mass audience on social media's impact on youth mental health and empowered parents and teens to act – specifically by signing a petition for legislative change in Canada. Leveraging well-known TV brands Breakfast Television and Cityline, they engaged RSM talent and industry experts to drive relevance and credibility for a mass audience on
youth mental health.
Tracy Moore led the campaign, sharing her perspective as a mom of teens on Breakfast Television
and hosting a special episode on Cityline.
Other RSM talent, including Sid Seixeiro, Lily Yang, Grace Lee, Myles Sexton, and Amanda Muse, actively participated in conversations across both shows, offering a rich tapestry of influential voices.
TV integrations reached a mass audience and amplified the voices of key industry experts – including child psychologist Dr. Vanessa Lapointe, Jo Henderson from CAHM, and Katherine Hay from Kids Help Phone. Their expertise added credibility to the conversation and offered actionable guidance for parents and caregivers.
The campaign's culmination was a full custom show on Cityline, focusing on the realities teens face today. Uniquely, the audience comprised teens and caregivers, many of whom contributed to the show's content. The ‘Teen Special’ delved into the impact of social media on mental health, featuring a poignant interview with Mary Eposito and her mother, sharing their experiences with Mary's eating disorder triggered by social media.
Mary’s story is also showcased in the incredible long form video produced by Dove – “Cost of Beauty”. RSM provided a platform to showcase the full long for video for a broad audience – breaking the commercial format to accommodate 3 minute video in commercial breaks during Breakfast Television and Cityline throughout the full campaign.
A crucial element was to maintain the conversation around mental health throughout the campaign. Both BT and Cityline featured segments discussing various aspects of social media's impact on mental health. Talent from both brands engaged in authentic conversations covering topics like appearance altering filters, injectables in youth, and family mental health resources. The series aimed to encompass several key components of the DOVE campaign.
The campaign dominated the content on two of Canada’s most well-known morning shows – with consistent integrations over 7 weeks to maintain viewer interest, engagement and drive education. It also broke the commercial length format to accommodate the Dove film (that was banned from distribution across social media) and the Cityline all teen (plus parents) audience was integrated into the content of the special episode! Mary’s appearance on Cityline was her first appearance on a major broadcast television program.
The goal of the campaign was to drive mass awareness of the toxic impacts of social media on the mental health of teens and youth while providing a clear path forward for action.
This campaign had people talking. There were over 2.4 million impressions socially with an 18.5% engagement rate – over 3x the usual engagement benchmark! There was also over 1,000 hours of content watched on Youtube.
By partnering with BT and Cityline they were able to ensure consistent reach and conversation across national platforms throughout the campaign period with over 78 minutes of live on air content time
on mass TV!
New research from Dove highlights social media's deep damage, notably affecting teens' mental health, causing anxiety, self-confidence issues, and body dysmorphia.
And the research identified an awareness gap – parents didn’t realize how social media was impacting even their own kids.
The goal was to close this gap, raising awareness and motivating Canadians to address youth mental health impacted by social media, providing a positive path forward for parents and caregivers.
While social media can be a powerful source of creativity and self-expression, it is also harming the health of more than half of Canadian kids.
2023 Dove Self-Esteem Project Research for Kids’ Online Safety reveals a youth mental crisis
fueled by social media.
Studies show that 1 in 2 teens report negative mental health impacts from harmful social media content, 3 in 4 teens say social media makes them want to change their appearance and awareness is lacking – 8 in 10 parents believe people underestimate the severity of social media's impact on mental health, with ½ of parents underestimating its impact on their own child.
Dove’s goal was to close the awareness gap and empower Canadians to push for legislative change to address this youth mental health crisis caused by social media. Dove knew that to achieve this, parents and caregivers needed to understand the depth of the toxic impacts of social media.
Their strategy involved creating a platform to showcase the crisis's impact through personal stories of those affected the most, including doctors, researchers, parents, and deeply impacted youth. These experiences were integrated across RSM brands and culminated in a dedicated Cityline show on the realities faced by teens today.
The purpose-driven campaign educated a mass audience on social media's impact on youth mental health and empowered parents and teens to act – specifically by signing a petition for legislative change in Canada. Leveraging well-known TV brands Breakfast Television and Cityline, they engaged RSM talent and industry experts to drive relevance and credibility for a mass audience on
youth mental health.
Tracy Moore led the campaign, sharing her perspective as a mom of teens on Breakfast Television
and hosting a special episode on Cityline.
Other RSM talent, including Sid Seixeiro, Lily Yang, Grace Lee, Myles Sexton, and Amanda Muse, actively participated in conversations across both shows, offering a rich tapestry of influential voices.
TV integrations reached a mass audience and amplified the voices of key industry experts – including child psychologist Dr. Vanessa Lapointe, Jo Henderson from CAHM, and Katherine Hay from Kids Help Phone. Their expertise added credibility to the conversation and offered actionable guidance for parents and caregivers.
The campaign's culmination was a full custom show on Cityline, focusing on the realities teens face today. Uniquely, the audience comprised teens and caregivers, many of whom contributed to the show's content. The ‘Teen Special’ delved into the impact of social media on mental health, featuring a poignant interview with Mary Eposito and her mother, sharing their experiences with Mary's eating disorder triggered by social media.
Mary’s story is also showcased in the incredible long form video produced by Dove – “Cost of Beauty”. RSM provided a platform to showcase the full long for video for a broad audience – breaking the commercial format to accommodate 3 minute video in commercial breaks during Breakfast Television and Cityline throughout the full campaign.
A crucial element was to maintain the conversation around mental health throughout the campaign. Both BT and Cityline featured segments discussing various aspects of social media's impact on mental health. Talent from both brands engaged in authentic conversations covering topics like appearance altering filters, injectables in youth, and family mental health resources. The series aimed to encompass several key components of the DOVE campaign.
The campaign dominated the content on two of Canada’s most well-known morning shows – with consistent integrations over 7 weeks to maintain viewer interest, engagement and drive education. It also broke the commercial length format to accommodate the Dove film (that was banned from distribution across social media) and the Cityline all teen (plus parents) audience was integrated into the content of the special episode! Mary’s appearance on Cityline was her first appearance on a major broadcast television program.
The goal of the campaign was to drive mass awareness of the toxic impacts of social media on the mental health of teens and youth while providing a clear path forward for action.
This campaign had people talking. There were over 2.4 million impressions socially with an 18.5% engagement rate – over 3x the usual engagement benchmark! There was also over 1,000 hours of content watched on Youtube.
By partnering with BT and Cityline they were able to ensure consistent reach and conversation across national platforms throughout the campaign period with over 78 minutes of live on air content time
on mass TV!
Credits
Laura R Douglas, UnileverCathleen Rafeiro, Unilever
Melissa Grevstad, Unilever
Jamie Norgarb, Unilever
Marissa Robinson, PHD
Carlton Jacob, PHD
Catherine Santos, Edelman
Danielle Bozinoff, Edelman
Louise Hugot, Edelman
Caelen Mcmicheal, Edelman
Sara Rezaee, Edelman
April Burak, RSM
Carmela Wynne, RSM
Alison Williams, RSM
Rosemary Pereira, RSM
Connie Lucia, RSM
Adam Patel, RSM