2024 Winner

With toxic beauty content devastating the mental health of three out of every five kids, Unilever’s Dove and agency Ogilvy launched “Cost of Beauty” to raise awareness of the issue. The spot features Mary, a real teenager who almost lost her life to an eating disorder. To tell her story, the video shows Mary’s own photos, videos, and journal entries, condensing 14 years of her life into 115 seconds.

The video demonstrates how quickly social media contributed to Mary’s distorted view of herself, leading to a decline in her mental health. In the end, the video reveals this isn’t just the story of Mary, it’s the story of millions of girls. The film concludes with a call to sign the petition in support of the Kids Online Safety Act. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject, the film soft-launched organically. In ten days, there were 28 million organic views, making it Dove’s highest organically viewed film.

Credits

Agency
Ogilvy Canada / Ogilvy UK
Chief Creative Officer: Francesco Grandi Ogilvy Toronto
Executive Creative Director: Daniel Fisher (Ogilvy UK)
Associate Creative Director: Luke Woodard/Morgan Starr
Art Director: Luke Woodard
Writer: Morgan Starr
Designer: Laurence Blake (Ogilvy UK)
Photographer: Ale Burset
Producer: James Brook-Partridge/Manny Caston/Ed Walsh
Agency Producer: Amanda Kresge/Chris Chapman/Lynsie Roberts/Jonathon Nixon
Production Company: Smuggler
Executive Producer: Fergus Brown/ Drew Santarsiero
Director: Henry-Alex Rubin
Director of Photography: David Devlin
Editing House: Final Cut NY
Editor: Jim Helton/Ashley Kreamer/Patrick Colman
Colourist: Alex Jimenez/Javiera Ergas (Color Collective)
Music & Sound: Machine Big Sync Music
Casting: Genuine Real People
Strategy: Lindsey Gonnella (Ogilvy NY)
Account Team
Jo BaconDoug le Patourel/Lucy Tone-McGurk/Teigan Henry/Natasha Wijeweera/
Olivia White
Assistant Editor: Micah Chase/Chris Rizzo