How Dove cast their Reverse Selfie campaign | D&AD Festival 2023

“It is scary,” says Daniel Fisher, Global ECD for Unilever at Ogilvy, reflecting on the statistic that 80% of 13-year-old girls surveyed used selfie editing apps to digitally alter images of themselves.

“Dove as a brand, famously only uses real people,” and on the topic of casting Grace, the girl featured in Dove’s Reverse Selfie campaign, Fisher explains the need for authenticity, “we were determined to find someone who has actually been through this themselves… but she was also significantly in recovery enough that she was able to actually handle being in this campaign.”

This is an excerpt from the panel discussion: Beautifully simple craft in the campaign for real beauty, held at D&AD Festival 2023. Fisher speaks with Firdaous El Honsali, Global Dove Vice President External Communications and Sustainability, and Sonoo Singh, founder at Creative Salon, on Dove’s Reverse Selfie Campaign, created by Ogilvy and directed by Benito Montorio.

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