With a recent survey finding that most young girls struggle with self-esteem and make use of apps that change the appearance of selfies to change and hide unwanted bodily features, Unilever’s Dove soap launched a campaign to raise awareness around the harmful effects that social media has on the self-esteem of preteens around the world.
With influencers sharing snaps of their glamorous lives and surgically enhanced bodies, the desire to cover up our own blemishes and smooth ourselves over is always there. Social media pressurizes individuals to look a certain way – adding filters to our photos or ever editing them to change our appearance. With social media being an integral part of our everyday lives, digital distortion is happening more than ever. Tools that have only been available to professionals can now be accessed by young girls at the touch of a button without regulation, to create something ‘perfect’ which cannot be achieved in real life.
The Dove ad shows a rewound view of a young girl putting on make-up and using photo-editing software to enhance her features before posting a picture on social media to gain the approval of her peers. The ad ends with a message that reads “The real pressure of social media is harming our girl’s self-esteem. Let’s reverse the damage”.
With the beauty industry being one of the most damaging to women’s self -esteem with selfie apps adding to the unnecessary pressure, Dove wants to change and highlight these issues of unnatural beauty standards by providing free tools for both parents and carers to help the children in their lives navigate social media in a positive way.
Dove hopes to start a movement and build confidence with the hashtag, #NoDigitalDistortion, and will be running the ads all over the world across various platforms.
