Watch Dove’s Super Bowl ad aiming to keep girls in sports

Girls take their spills on softball and field hockey fields, ice rinks and gyms in Dove’s Super Bowl ad, but what really drives them out of sports is low body confidence, the Unilever brand contends. The spot from Ogilvy, backed by Mindshare on media, continues the tradition of the brand’s 20-year-old Campaign for Real Beauty. Specifically, it supports the Body Confident Sport program to create a first-of-its-kind scientifically backed set of coaching tools to build body confidence in girls ages 11 to 17. Lucy Bridger of Dark Energy directed the spot, which runs in the first quarter. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here The ad cites Dove research co-commissioned with Nike, which found that 45% of teen girls globally drop out of sports due to low body confidence as it cuts from sports action shots to show a girl in a bathing suit looking at herself in a mirror. She then runs and jumps in a pool as Dove shows its #KeepHerConfident tagline. “The emotional trauma young girls can face in a sporting environment, during a time when their body is changing, is sometimes greater than any physical knock they may sustain playing sports,” said Daniel Fisher, global executive creative director at Ogilvy, in a statement. “We decided to bring this issue to life in the Dove spot using the cultural anthem ‘It’s the Hard Knock Life’” Fisher said the song “perfectly captures the struggle girls go through playing sports, while leaving the audience feeling hopeful.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “We are thrilled to be back at the Big Game to continue our mission of making sports a place where all girls can thrive and feel like they belong,” said Greg Ross, chief operating officer of Unilever North America Personal Care, in a statement. Earlier this week, Kylie Kelce (wife of Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce) announced a partnership with Dove to drive awareness of the Body Confident Sport program. The brand also is working with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young and his daughters Summer and Laila Young; and tennis champion Venus Williams on the effort, which launched in October. Young and Williams will take the field in Dove’s “45 Yard Line” flag football game for change in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl, guiding teams of high school girls and putting lessons from the Body Confident Sport program into practice.

Watch Dove’s Super Bowl ad aiming to keep girls in sports

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