Evolution
Dove (Unilever)2006
Evolution is a 2006 75-second online film for Dove, created by Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto.
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The line
No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.
Why it works
The film that made the ad industry take the internet seriously. Made from leftover budget to promote the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, "Evolution" compresses a model's transformation — lighting, make-up, then Photoshop stretching her neck and widening her eyes — into 75 time-lapse seconds, ending on the line "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted." Posted online on October 6, 2006, it spread worldwide in days and reached audiences a comparable Super Bowl buy could not, at a fraction of the cost. It is studied as the proof case for earned media (distribution as a function of the idea, not the budget), as advertising critiquing its own machinery, and as the pivotal work of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. At Cannes 2007 it won both the Film Grand Prix and the Cyber Grand Prix — the first work ever to take both.
Techniques
- Purpose and cause Made to promote the brand's self-esteem fund, it turns on the beauty industry's own machinery for distorting how beauty is perceived.
- Logos Compressing make-up, lighting and Photoshop stretching into 75 seconds shows exactly how a model's image is manufactured, letting viewers see the distortion for themselves.
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