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Leave it to Dove to turn a taboo subject into a teachable moment in its ongoing quest to redefine beauty standards. That the brand managed to do so during notoriously beauty-focused New York Fashion Week is even more apropos.
This time around, the brand is bringing attention to a body part not typically the focus during the parade of high fashion garments: armpits.
On a sweltering day in the Meatpacking District, New Yorkers of all ages and genders lined up at “The Pit Stop,” Dove Deodorant’s subway-themed activation, waiting to take Polaroids of themselves posing as stylish straphangers. Some of them left the photos on a corkboard after writing messages on them, encouraging others to embrace their imperfect pits and signing off with #FreeThePits—the brand’s hashtag for its latest global campaign.
“The Pits of New York” campaign, created by agency Ogilvy London in collaboration with David New York, features images of women baring their pits while riding the subway. The accompanying lines included: “Care for your underarms. Not what others think of them” and “Does hair make you stare?”
The ads reveal that “6 in 10 of us admit to judging other women’s armpits,” according to a recent study conducted by the brand–and call for a change to that attitude.
“At Dove, it’s our mission to help women to feel confident in their bodies,” Pranav Chandan, U.S. head of deodorants at Unilever, told Adweek. “’#FreethePits’ was created to bring attention to the underarm insecurities that women face and empower underarm acceptance and celebration. We intentionally chose to activate during fashion’s biggest week in NYC, as it’s a time when people come from all over the world to help define the next evolution of fashion and beauty.”