Dove’s Super Bowl ad shows a girl’s joyful running—and how fleeting that can be

Dove is returning to the Super Bowl with a 30-second spot that, like last year, focuses on the obstacles to keeping girls in sports. This year’s spot, with creative led by WPP’s Ogilvy, shows the joyful running of a 3-year-old girl as a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” plays in the background, before focusing on how fleeting that joy can be as body image issues emerge for many during teen years. Half of girls who quit sports face criticism for their body type, according to the ad text behind the Unilever brand’s Body Confident Sport campaign. Dove is surrounding the Super Bowl spot with a Sports Illustrated partnership that includes a “Sports reIllustrated” special edition with 10 profiles of young athletes. The edition will be available online and in print, with a special promotional cover featuring 10-year-old Honor Smoke, the youngest athlete ever to appear on such a cover. The print collection of stories will be distributed in New Orleans ahead of the game and run as a special section in the magazine’s March issue. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Click here Edelman led creative on the Sports reIllustrated initiative and is handling PR around the campaign, with WPP’s Mindshare handling media. Backing the effort also are a host of celebrities including Billie Jean King, Venus Williams, New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, Olympic long jump gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall, Women’s National Football Conference founder Odessa Jenkins, tennis star Emma Navarro, and Kylie Kelce, field hockey athlete and coach and wife of former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. King will join a young female athlete in doing interviews on Radio Row during the Super Bowl in New Orleans. “At Dove, we know the prevalence of body talk in sports—which often focuses on appearance over ability—harms girls’ body confidence,” said Marcela Melero, chief growth officer of Dove Personal Care North America, in a statement. “With 48% of girls who drop out of sports being told they have the wrong body type, it’s time to inspire change, not just in how we see young athletes, but in how we speak to them.”

Dove’s Super Bowl ad shows a girl’s joyful running—and how fleeting that can be

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