Dove is partnering with TikTok creators to push back against the rise of the platform’s controversial “Bold Glamour” filter, which applies a heavy layer of digital makeup and alters users’ facial features. This is part of the brand’s larger rejection of social media filters and the unrealistic beauty standards they set for girls and women. 

The Unilever-owned beauty brand today launched a TikTok-first campaign called #TurnYourBack, challenging users on the platform to refuse to add the “Bold Glamour” filter to their own videos. The filter began to go viral on the platform in late February as millions of users began posting videos of themselves reacting to its ability to completely change their appearance. 

In many of the nearly 17 million videos made using the filter thus far, users have commented on the filter’s uncanny ability to adhere to their face and give them features such as impossibly smooth skin, plumper lips and a smaller nose, with these changes unaffected by the user moving their hand between their camera and their face. Unlike the majority of video effects on TikTok, the “Bold Glamour” filter uses machine learning to precisely map users’ faces, rather than simply being an overlay.

It was not immediately clear who created the filter—TikTok's Trust and Safety team is responsible for approving filters submitted through its “Effect House” AR tool, which the platform opened to the public in April 2022. (TikTok did not return a request for comment as of deadline.)

With its #TurnYourBack campaign that launched on International Women's Day, Dove partnered with a group of TikTok creators to post videos of what they look like without any video filters, pointing out the natural parts of their appearances—including undereye bags, skin discoloration and acne—that filters like “Bold Glamour” erase. Lifestyle creator Hira Mustafa, for example, highlights her visible pores and chipped tooth in her video, while body confidence creator Miah Carter describes how her skin condition often makes her feel insecure and want to add a filter to her video content—”but, in reality, that’s not me,” she says in her video. 

“I can’t say enough, you are absolutely gorgeous [and] beautiful without this filter,” Carter tells her viewers. 

Thus far, the hashtag #TurnYourBack—which includes at least a dozen Dove-sponsored videos of creators following Mustafa and Carter’s example and rejecting the “Bold Glamour” filter and physically turning their backs to the camera—has amassed over 2.4 million views. And Dove posted a video to the brand’s TikTok account to promote the initiative, with on-screen text reading: “Turn your back. Because no filter should tell you how to look.” 

The videos shared by Dove’s creator partners also begin with the creators sharing statistics from research conducted by Edelman Data & Intelligence in 2020 about the harmful effects of social media filters on young girls’ confidence. Forty-eight percent of girls who regularly use filters in their photos have lower self-esteem, and 77% of girls use some type of filter or another form of photo retouching before posting a photo on social media, according to the research.

“While social media filters can be a source of creativity and self-expression, Bold Glamour goes beyond play,’” said Firdaous El Honsali, global VP of external communications at Dove, in a statement. “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.” 

Dove collaborated with Ogilvy and David to produce the campaign in just under a week, with Mindshare serving as the media agency for the initiative. In the coming weeks, the campaign will extend beyond TikTok and include other "large-scale digital content" and out-of-home activations, according to a press release.

“Influencers create culture and as an influencer industry we have a duty of care to the millions of people that tune into the content we put out,” said Rahul Titus, global head of influence at Ogilvy, in a statement. “#TurnYourBack is a perfect example of how we can be part of the solution.” Ogilvy UK, the agency's office that primarily worked on the Dove campaign, said last April it would stop working with creators who retouched or otherwise digitally altered their appearances.  

Dove’s #TurnYourBack initiative continues the brand’s overarching Self-Esteem Project, which has previously included several initiatives taking aim at social media’s role in perpetuating impossible-to-achieve beauty standards. In 2021, Dove kicked off a similar TikTok initiative using the hashtag #NoDigitalDistortion to highlight the pressures women and girls face to use retouching and filters to alter their appearance in social media content.