#DetoxYourFeed – Dove: When a Brand Becomes a Parent’s Wake-Up Call 🧠📱
In an internet where filters are facts and influencers pitch Botox to 13-year-olds, Dove decided to do something different: talk to the people who still have the biggest influence on girls’ lives : their parents. And they didn’t whisper. They hit like a warning shot.
https://www.dove.com/ca/fr/stories/campaigns/detoxify.html
Toxic Feeds, Deep Fakes, and Real Emotions 🚨
In May 2022, Dove and Ogilvy UK launched a raw social experiment titled #DetoxYourFeed. In it, mothers watched their daughters scroll through beauty content, only to see their own faces deepfaked onto influencers giving advice like: “Baby Botox is amazing,” or “Chemical peels burn the top layers of your skin.”
The result? Shock. Tears. Conversations that needed to happen.
It wasn’t a horror movie. It was real life. Because Dove had the data:
- 90% of girls follow at least one account that makes them feel less beautiful
- 50% say toxic beauty content has lowered their self-esteem
- 70% feel better when they unfollow that content
Dove didn’t just show a problem. They helped fix it.
A Toolkit, Not Just an Ad 📖
The campaign didn’t end with the film. Dove launched a Confidence Kit, online parent workbooks, and a live-streamed Q&A with experts to equip families for these convos.
It was education disguised as emotion. And it worked.
The Results? Beautifully Uncomfortable 🚀
- 13.6M organic views in 10 days
- 115.5M total views online
- 3.1B earned media impressions
- Featured in 300+ media outlets in 60 countries
- Won Gold at One Show 2023
Dove made a campaign for the kids that spoke directly to the grown-ups. Smart.
Still Real After All These Years ✨
Since 2004, Dove has stuck to one mission: redefine beauty standards and raise self-esteem.
From forensic sketches to doorway experiments, their social stunts always start with one thing: truth. #DetoxYourFeed is the latest in that legacy. But this time, the villain wasn’t airbrushing. It was the algorithm.
And the hero wasn’t Dove. It was parents who finally saw what their daughters were seeing.
Reaching Two Generations at Once 🌟
Dove nailed the strategy by targeting Gen Z with empathy and millennials/gen X with responsibility. They protected the girls, empowered the parents, and built brand love with both. Because ultimately, this wasn’t about body wash. It was about impact.
Dove proved, once again, that when you stand for something bigger than product, people listen. They didn’t preach. They showed. And they left us all thinking twice before scrolling.
Now excuse us while we go unfollow half our feed.