One month ago, TikTok launched its Bold Glamour filter. Users were flabbergasted with its uncanny-valley style likeness which later revealed was due to AI abilities. Since its launch, the filter has been downloaded 16 million times.
Due to its freakish likeness, many have critiqued the filter as setting unrealistic expectations and painting everyone’s face with the same filters. In unison, iconic and often outspokenly filter-less beauty brand, Dove, is taking a stand against it and the unrealistic beauty standards it perpetuates in an influencer-led campaign from Ogilvy and David.
The campaign kicked off on March 9th with a TikTok post from Dove claiming to #TurnYourBack on such filters, stating that “no filter should tell you how to look,” and showing women turning away from the camera and walking off screen. It also explains the wide impact of similar tools, noting that 80% of girls are using filters by age 13 and 54% of girls prefer the way they look when their photos are edited.
Paid posts from influencers including Hira Mustafa and Nadya Okamoto echo Dove’s message, encouraging others to avoid digital distortion. The campaign will continue with digital content and OOH activations.
“When young people distort their images, they distort their minds too,” Dove global vice president of external communications Firdaous El Honsali said in a statement. “We are calling on our community to join us to turn their backs to the toxic Bold Glamour filter and stand up for real beauty.”
The campaign came together under what felt like an urgent pressure to address the topic of the filter. Bold Glamour launched while Ogilvy was hosting a global creative meeting and the agency quickly solicited responses from members of its network, receiving 250 slides in less than 24 hours. David Madrid and Ogilvy UK created #TurnYourBack with production assistance from DAVID São Paulo.
It’s inspiring, particularly in an era and culture so shaken by the consequences of woke culture and speaking our minds, to see a brand take such a transparent stand against an element of culture they feel to be harming our health.
