Unilever’s Dove is running a new social campaign asking women ‘Who Inspired You?’ and focusing on beauty as a reliable source of confidence.
Photo: Dove Movement for self-esteem, from www.lovingyou.com
To participate, women should visit Dove’s Facebook page, share their stories, and reflect on who has made a difference in their lives. For every answer received Dove donates $1 to Girls Inc. The promotion runs through October 31 and Dove will donate approximately $100,000. In addition, Dove will donate $200,000 to Girls Inc. to help promote U.S. self-esteem programming.
To expand the online initiative behind the web virtual reality Dove conducted another encouraging initiative, the Second Annual Dove Self-Esteem Weekend that was held on October 21—23 within Dove’s new campaign. With help of celebrities including Grammy Award-nominated singer Natasha Bedingfield, Olympian Julie Foudy and Dove Global Self-Esteem Ambassador Jess Weiner, women were asked to commit to spending one hour with a girl in their life to help the next generation develop a positive relationship with beauty. There were thousands of events nationwide that brought together women and girls.
The events map was available on Facebook where women could share their plans for the weekend, or locate a public event in their area, on the interactive Dove Facebook map.
The first event of the weekend took place in New York with Bedingfield, Foudy, Weiner and members of the Greater New York Council of the Girl Scouts, who participated in a discussion about issues affecting girls’ self-esteem. During the event girls could exercise their songwriting skills and celebrate real beauty, as well as talk about setting goals, says Marketing Daily.
Within the year-round campaign, women can also download a badge from www.dove.com to show their support for building self-esteem in girls and provide their communities with direct access to the Dove Self-Esteem toolkit. The toolkit include a conversation guide regarding online behavior called ‘A Girl’s Guide to the Digital World—How to Log Off of Digital Drama’ written to help girls maintain positive self-esteem. A tip sheet with recommendations from Dove communities on how to build self-esteem in girls is also available on Facebook and Twitter.
The first Dove’s effort to raise girls’ self-esteem dates back to 2004, when a global study in 2004 revealed that only 2% of women considered themselves beautiful. Dove launched a discussion on a wider definition of beauty with its ‘Campaign for Real Beauty.’Since then, the company has reached more than eight million girls so far with self-esteem programs, said Rob Candelino, marketing director, Dove U.S., Unilever. The goal is to reach 15 million girls by 2014, he added.
