Unilever beauty brand Dove will be featured in a TV commercial during the 2024 Super Bowl, per a press release. The Super Bowl ad message will include a call to #KeepHerConfident and is tied to its previously announced partnership with Nike to create Body Confident Sport, a set of coaching tools to build body confidence in girls aged 11 to 17.
“Dove is on a mission to make sports a place where all girls can thrive and feel like they belong,” said Leandro Barreto, senior vice president for the global Dove master brand, in the press release. “The prevalence of negative body talk in sports and focus on appearance over ability harms girls' body confidence.”
The 30-second spot will air during the first quarter of the game nationally and marks the brand's first big game appearance since 2006. Separately, Dove's male-focused product collection, Dove Men + Care, was featured in a product-focused 2013 Super Bowl ad.
The Super Bowl spot is the latest iteration of the long-running Dove Self-Esteem Project, which the brand claims has reached more than 100 million young people since its 2004 launch and is on track to reach 250 million young people by 2030. The Body Confident Sport initiative was announced in October and is billed by the companies as a first-of-its-kind and scientifically-proven set of coaching tools. It was informed by research that 45% of teenage girls globally drop out of sports due to low body confidence.
Dove's continued commitment to its purpose-driven efforts comes as marketers, including parent company Unilever, reassess how brands approach the tactic. Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher said on an October earnings call that brands like Dove that have had success around purpose would receive “every encouragement” to use the tactic as part of their brand propositions, but said that Unilever would not “force fit” purpose across its portfolio.
Dove will be joined on game day by sister brand Hellmann's Mayonnaise with a spot highlighting that brand’s multi-year “Make Taste, Not Waste” initiative, which has been a core focus in past game day ads.
