Beauty brand Dove is back at the Big Game with a new ad to raise awareness of the impact negative body talk can have on girls in sports. Inspired by the findings that nearly half of girls who drop out of sports are criticized for their body type, Dove’s 30-second spot will air during the fourth quarter, with an important message about boosting body confidence in young athletes.
Created in partnership with Ogilvy UK, the ad underscores Dove’s ongoing commitment to keeping girls in sports through the Body Confident Sport program – a first-of-its-kind and scientifically-proven set of coaching tools to build body confidence in 11-17-year-old girls and encourage them to stay in sports.
“As a global leader in self-esteem education, Dove is dedicated to helping girls feel confident in sports and beyond,” said Marcela Melero, Chief Growth Officer, Dove Personal Care North America. “But this focus on appearance over ability is shattering girls’ confidence and preventing them from thriving in the sports they love. That’s why Dove is proud to return to the Big Game to inspire coaches and communities with our Body Confident Sport program. Together, we can help keep her confident – both on and off the field.”
The spot is anchored by a re-recording of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic 1975 track “Born to Run,” 50 years after its original release, with an instrumental accompaniment by GRAMMY and OSCAR award-winning singer, songwriter and producer H.E.R. The recording is intended to serve as an anthem for the next generation of young girls in sports and amplify the commitment to #KeepHerConfident.
“It’s been an honor to do a version of this iconic song, 50 years after its release.,” said H.E.R., GRAMMY and OSCAR award-winning singer, songwriter and producer. “Partnering with Dove on this project means the world to me because I feel like part of my purpose is to empower young girls to go against the grain and hold onto their confidence. I hope this movement inspires young girls to continue to love what they see in the mirror, stay in sports, and believe in themselves and realize they are truly unstoppable.”
Dove has also assembled the Body Confident Collective: an all-star squad of influential female voices in sports to support the Body Confident Sport program, and inspire young athletes to feel more confident while playing the sports they love. New and long-time partners include:
- Billie Jean King, sports icon and equality champion
- Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty guard
- Venus Williams, tennis champion, entrepreneur and philanthropist
- Kylie Kelce, field hockey athlete and coach
- Tara Davis-Woodhall, Olympic long jump gold medalist
- Odessa Jenkins, founder of the Women’s National Football Conference
- Emma Navarro, American tennis star
In the run-up to the Big Game, Dove and the Dove Body Confident Collective will host a series of events across New Orleans to spotlight the pressures young girls face around body image in sports, and put lessons from the Body Confident Sport program into practice.
Dove and Nike have commissioned this survey to expose the reality of girls’ experience in sports and the impact it has on their confidence, as well as the drivers behind girls dropping out and potential solutions.
We asked 4,917 children of different ages, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and US to take part in a 15-minute online survey.
The study included 3,506 girls aged between 9-17 years old (approximately 500 from each country) and 1,391 boys aged 9-17 years old (approximately 200 from each country) who had the consent of a parent or legal guardian to take part.
Dove is the largest self-esteem education provider in the world, offering no-cost, academically validated tools to parents, teachers, mentors, and kids for nearly two decades with the Dove Self-Esteem Project. To date, Dove has reached more than 114 million young people globally across 153 countries with DSEP, with a goal of reaching 250M young lives by 2030.
