On Thursday, March 9, Dove is calling on its global community to #TurnYourBack to the trending Bold Glamour filter. As the harmful filter sweeps social channels with content creators calling out its dangers, Dove is inviting everyone to join them to take a stand as part of its ongoing commitment to #NoDigitalDistortion in any of its advertising or marketing.
“The Bold Glamour filter has now been used over 15 million times, and its popularity certainly doesn’t seem to be waning. What might seem like a harmless filter has the potential to cause damage to our mental health and affect our self-esteem,” explains content creator and body confidence advocate, Alex Light. “Filters like this create a brand new and unrealistic comparison that blurs the lines of reality and sets a new standard for how we think we should look. It’s vital that we push back against these increasingly toxic beauty standards and show young girls that it’s OK to be their authentic, beautiful selves. I’ve worked with Dove for a long time, and I am so proud to work with a brand who not only pledge no digital distortion in their imagery, but continually work to dismantle beauty standards and champion self-esteem in women and girls. I am fully behind their new campaign.”
While social media filters can be a source of creativity and self-expression, effects like Bold Glamour dramatically distort reality and reinforce narrow and unattainable beauty standards. Thirty-eight percent of girls say they can’t live up to the beauty standards that influencers project on social media, and 80% say they have already applied a filter or used a retouching app to change the way they look in their photos by age 13.
As a result, 48% of girls who distort their photos regularly have lower body esteem compared to 28% of girls who don’t.
“Academic studies find that the use of filters and selfie editing are associated with low body confidence, mood, and self-esteem,” explains Dr Phillippa Diedrichs, Research Psychologist at the Centre of Appearance Research at the University of West England and body image expert. “Research from Dove found that almost half of girls with lower body esteem feel they don’t look good enough without photo editing. Moreover, filters have become part of everyday life for 52% of girls, and 77% try to change or hide at least one part of their body before posting a photo of themselves. This suggests that the cumulative effect of filters and digital distortion over time is creating appearance pressures and low self-worth among girls and young women.”
For years, Dove has championed wider definitions of beauty and has taken action towards making social media a more positive place with campaigns like #SpeakBeautiful, #NoDigitalDistortion, Reverse Selfie/Selfie Talk, and #DetoxYourFeed. However, the rise of the new Bold Glamour filter effect is dangerous and reinforces the damaging beauty stereotypes Dove has been working to shatter.
“While social media filters can be a source of creativity and self-expression, Bold Glamour goes beyond ‘play.’ Tools once only available to professionals can now be accessed by young girls at the touch of a button and without regulation,” says Firdaous El Honsali, Global Vice President, External Communications at Dove. “At Dove, we are committed to #NoDigitalDistortion in any of our marketing and advertising so that we can support a more positive environment on social media that is representative of real, authentic beauty. When young people distort their images, they distort their minds too. 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. Because real beauty is bold!”
Dove wants to transform our too often toxic, digitally distorted feeds into a movement to keep beauty real. Take action by posting a video turning your back to the Bold Glamour filter using #TurnYourBack #BoldGlamour #NoDigitalDistortion.
Through the Dove Self-Esteem Project, Dove also offers academically validated and free tools to empower parents and caregivers to help kids navigate social media in a positive way. Created in partnership with the Centre for Appearance Research, the Confidence Kit provides tips on how to make social media a healthy place where kids can flourish and is available for download at https://www.dove.com/uk/dove-self-esteem-project/help-for-parents/confidence-kit-a-tool-to-help-build-positive-body-confidence.html.
The Confidence Kit is part of the Dove Self-Esteem Project’s mission to help 250 million kids with self-esteem education by 2030. To-date, the Dove Self-Esteem Project has reached the lives of 94.5 million young people across 150 countries.
Together, let’s stop retouching apps from blurring young people’s confidence and build positive body image on social media. Join us and #TurnYourBack to #BoldGlamour.
Dove Research
Research conducted by Edelman Data & Intelligence, a global, multidisciplinary research, analytics and data consultancy between November and December 2020 in US, UK, and Canada.
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