AdMiration feature: Dove's “Change the Compliment”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to Dove's “Change the Compliment” ad, released for International Day of the Girl, which urges people to change how they approach complimenting young girls.

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to the Dove logo on a white background, followed by a montage of found home footage clips of young girls and the compliments they are given — from “you’re beautiful” to “so pretty” to “you’re so cute” and more. 

After several clips, the white screen returns with the Dove logo and the words “Girls are so much more than just beautiful. Let’s tell them.” 

The montage of clips comes back, but this time the compliments are different, with a young girl riding a bike being told “you’re so brave,” young girls running and being told “you’re so fast,” a tot learning to surf and being told "you're fearless” and so on, with more and more compliments like “you’re so smart,” “you’re so talented,” “such a hard worker,” “you’re very creative” and more taking over the audio. 

The home videos end on a clip of a father and newborn, who tells her “you’re such a strong girl” as she wraps her small hand around his finger. The ad concludes with the Dove logo on a white background with the words “Call me” followed by text that changes to “strong” then “creative” then “confident” and finally “talented” as the sound of young girls giggling can be heard in the background and #ChangeTheCompliment appears on screen.

This ad from Dove serves as another installment in the brand’s “Real Beauty” campaign and Self-Esteem Project, a pledge to educate girls on body positivity, showcasing how consistent Dove has been for many years!

Since launching in 2004, the campaign has challenged beauty standards and aimed to boost self-esteem, especially among young girls, which can be seen across spots like “Real Beauty Sketches,” showing how women often describe themselves more critically than others do, “The Code,” which calls out how AI can reinforce harmful stereotypes, and more recently, “These Legs” from this year’s Super Bowl, which shows just how much pressure girls face and why support and visibility matter.

To keep this campaign timeless, Dove constantly adapts its messaging to stay relevant while always championing real, inclusive beauty — which is why this campaign has been successfully running for more than 20 years.

3 facts

• This was another very strong ad from Dove, landing in the top 15% of US ads for its ability to drive short-term sales (Sales Impact: 88) and brand equity (Brand Impact: 86) over the long term.

• Unsurprisingly, this is a highly emotionally resonant ad (Overall Emotion: 73 vs 57 norm) from the brand, specifically eliciting a lot of love (Love: 50% vs. 27% norm) and enjoyment (Enjoyment: 4.3 vs. 3.9 norm) from viewers. In fact, everything about the ad drives resonance. The message they are bringing attention to (women are much more than how they look), the empowerment of younger generations, the representation of people and relationships, how it was brought to life and more.

• Dove does a good job communicating who the ad is for (Unaided Brand Recall: 74% vs. 70%) and standing out among the rest (Brand distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm) through the brand’s consistency in storytelling style and overall brand message, allowing it to drive great reach, be noticed and remembered, with some people sharing: “The visuals of real people with diverse body types and skin tones, along with the soft, uplifting music and voiceover promoting natural beauty, made it clear this was a Dove ad.” and “It was obvious because of the wording. Dove always promotes women accepting themselves for what and who they are.” This is an ad that could only be for Dove!

2 learnings

• Tapping into a real consumer insight can deliver instant meaning for people. In this case, Unilever (Dove’s parent brand) conducted real consumer research that shows how well-meaning, appearance-based praise can increase body dissatisfaction and that adults tend to place greater emphasis on girls’ appearance than on boys’. It’s the type of insight that we don’t think about regularly, but is instantly meaningful and understood once you hear it. And it’s exactly the type of message that fits with Dove’s Self-Esteem Project and it feels like something only Dove can execute in an authentic way. 

• Fresh consistency is a great way to cue and grow your brand. Whether through art, AI, athletics or human insight, Dove adapts its messaging within their ads to stay relevant to the moment — while always staying true to its mission to champion real, inclusive beauty. As a result, Dove’s ads have become instantly recognizable and further builds up their brand with each installment. 

1 reflection

How well established are your brand assets and big ideas? 

You can rely on one big idea for intuitive, instant and natural branding, but it takes time to get to that point. You have to find a big idea that resonates — and then stay the course to reap the rewards over time. 

In this case, while the brand's golden dove logo was included in the spot, the actual mention of the Dove brand or products, verbal or written, never occurred. But with such strong, consistent brand storytelling and brand assets under their belt, viewers knew it could only be an ad for Dove — from the inclusion of real footage of young girls to the emotional storytelling to its iconic Dove logo and font choice, and of course, the empowering message for young girls. 

Dove proves that with well-established and consistent brand traits, ideas and storytelling, you don’t have to be so explicit for people to know it could only be an ad for your brand.

The brand’s latest installment to their “Real Beauty” campaign, “Change the Compliment” hones in on how we compliment each other — specifically how often girls are complimented solely on their appearance and the effect it has. 

The campaign was developed by Zulu Alpha Kilo’s New York and Toronto offices and the main spot directed by Haya Waseem, which launched on International Day of the Girl and as a global call to rethink how we talk to and about young girls.

On this human insight at the core of the campaign, Marcela Melero, Chief Growth Officer of Dove Personal Care North America and Dove Masterbrand, shares: “One of the most powerful truths our research has revealed is that low confidence in appearance doesn’t begin in adulthood – it takes root in childhood. We’ve identified a simple shift to help young girls understand that they are so much more than how they look. Starting this International Day of the Girl, we’re asking people to #ChangeTheCompliment and praise girls for what their bodies can do, as well as how they look.”

Emily Garvey, Head of Strategy at Zulu Alpha Kilo New York, adds: “The provocation here is that what feels like a harmless, positive behavior is actually the root of our confidence issues as girls and women. The work had to spark a cultural conversation to change how people see what they’ve always accepted.”

This integrated campaign is designed to spark conversation among parents and role models and spans film, social and user-generated activations, as well as OOH and influencer partnerships.

Another empowering and emotional spot from Dove made for another strong ad, which  landed in the top 15% of US ads for its ability to drive short-term sales (Sales Impact: 88) and brand equity (Brand Impact: 86) over the long term.

What makes this ad truly great is how it seamlessly (and successfully) complements the brand’s iconic “Real Beauty” campaign, showcasing how consistent Dove has been with this campaign for many years!

It’s truly an ad that stands out (Distinctiveness: 4.2 vs. 3.7 norm) captures the audience’s attention (Claimed attention: 4.3 vs. 3.9) and really sets the brand apart from others in the category (Brand distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm).

In fact, this consistency is what made it so easy for viewers to recognize just who the ad was for, with some sharing: 

• “The Dove logo. Also Dove usually makes videos about praising women.”

• “The Dove logo and font throughout the ad.”

• “The visuals of real people with diverse body types and skin tones, along with the soft, uplifting music and voiceover promoting natural beauty, made it clear this was a Dove ad.”

• “It was obvious because of the wording. Dove always promotes women accepting themselves for what and who they are.”

Unsurprisingly, this spot also resonated very strongly with viewers. People really enjoyed it (Enjoyment: 4.3 vs. 3.9 norm), found it to be very relevant to them (Relevance: 4.1 vs. 3.7 norm) and felt that the Dove brand delivers what they need from skincare products (Brand Meets Needs: 4.3 vs. 4.1 norm) and made them feel good about the brand (Brand Appeal: 4.2 vs. 3.9).

Truly everything about the ad drives resonance. The message they are bringing attention to, that women are much more than how they look, empowering younger generations, the representation of people and relationships, how it was brought to life and more.

Diving deeper into how people felt about it, the ad connected emotionally with viewers (Overall Emotion: 73 vs 57 norm), delivering on Dove's trademark emotional and empowering storytelling. In fact, love (Love: 50% vs. 27% norm) was the dominant emotion felt throughout the entire ad! 

We see the highest spike of love is right at the beginning of the ad, after the Dove logo has appeared onscreen and cuts to the image of the baby with the dad saying “pretty girl.” There’s fairly consistent levels of love throughout the ad from there, with higher levels of love as the voiceover shifts from the comments around appearance to comments of the girls being funny, hardworking, talented, etc. Love reaches its second-highest peak when the little girl says “I am smart and I can do anything!”

And people had some very strong, positive reactions to the messages, saying things like: 

• "I believe in the message and am happy that they are calling it out. Telling a young girl that she is beautiful just reinforces the idea that if you are a girl you have to be beautiful but there is so much more and we need to stop judging women's appearance."

• "I like that the ad features real people, not models, which feels relatable. I like how it promotes self-confidence and body positivity, sending a positive message. I like the uplifting visuals and music, which make the ad inspiring and memorable."

• "I like the idea of it. I think it's important to recognize young girls' talents from an early age, to show them they are more than beauty and beauty products, but people with goals, intelligence, and talents. I liked the ad a lot."

• "I like that it shows girls doing different things and of all ages. I like that they called it the self esteem project. I liked that they say girls are beautiful but they are so much more than that too."

• "It was touching and inspiring. I love this take. Women especially are held up to high and often unrealistic beauty standards while also being unrecognized for all of their other amazing qualities. As a woman I needed to hear this right now."

• "I like how they were uplifting girls and not just their product, amazing ad 10/10."

This was another moving and empowering ad that is certainly on brand for Dove! What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

To make sure you never miss one of our AdMiration analyses, subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter.