A hard-hitting new film from Greenpeace UK subverts Ogilvy’s iconic ‘Toxic Influence’ Dove ad on the anniversary of the brands ‘Real Beauty’ campaign.
The powerful spot hits out at the health and beauty brand, which has become renowned for its award-winning marketing which champions women and aims to change the narrative around beauty.
Focusing instead on the harmful impacts of the plastic pollution created by Dove and its parent company Unilever, the Greenpeace film subverts the acclaimed 2022 Ogilvy-produced video ‘Toxic Influence’.
Mirroring the original, it features mothers and daughters discussing their positive reactions to Dove’s marketing, before the true scale of the brand’s plastic waste is revealed – eliciting strong feelings of shock and revulsion.
”
“This powerful film shows the genuine human reaction to the hypocrisy which seeps through Dove and its slick marketing,” said Anna Diski, campaigner at Greenpeace UK.
“It’s a reaction which should worry the brand – the women and girls they claim to champion won’t put up with it and want Dove to change.”
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing campaigns sent straight to your inbox each morning
The release coincides with the 20th anniversary of Dove’s iconic ‘Real Beauty’ campaign, which launched in September 2004 and positioned the brand as having both social and environmental purpose.
However, the Greenpeace film looks to drive home its message that Dove’s parent company Unilever is one of the largest plastic polluters globally. The release of the film comes just one week after Greenpeace activists shut down the entrances to Unilever’s central London HQ as they called on the company to phase out single-use plastic.
The film was directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Alice Russell, joined by Anna Wells as producer and Sarah Cunningham as director of photography.
“[Women and girls] know there’s no real beauty in the real harm caused by Dove’s plastic pollution,” Diski continued.
“They can’t keep flooding the world with unimaginable amounts of harmful plastic. That’s why Dove must stop selling plastic sachets now and commit to phasing out single-use plastic within a decade.”
