Dove, continuing its quest to bust stigmas, tackles the beauty industry’s youth obsession head-on with a campaign starring women of a certain age who have relied on a brand mainstay for decades.

A woman named Vanessa, for instance, has been using Dove Body Bar since 1958. She appears in the commercial dressed in denim and low-top Converse, blissfully shredding on an electric guitar. 

So the perception of Dove as “your grandma’s soap” may be technically correct—except, there’s no dust, doilies or stodginess here. In fact, Nana flat-out rocks.

The new work, from longtime creative partner Edelman, purposely plays with numbers at a time when anti-aging skincare products are all the rage for adults and, controversially, for pre-teens.

Unilever’s Dove cast 10 diverse women who are 60-plus years old, not actors or models, and invited them to show up “not as characters but as who they are,” according to Divya Raghavan, senior brand director of innovation and equity. “They brought their own personality and attitude.”

An invisible demo

The campaign, which is scheduled to run until year’s end and fits tonally with the lauded “Real Beauty” platform, intends to “put the spotlight on older women, who are rarely visible in the beauty conversation” and celebrate them in an empowering, unapologetic, non-patronizing way, she said.

Among those featured in the spot are Angelina, a customer since 1967, who shows off her pool shark skills, and the beret-clad Katrine, a fan since 1977.

“Beauty Never Gets Old” wants to make a specific point about aging, given some of Dove’s recent research that found 66% of women say they feel pressure to look young, and girls as young as 10 are starting anti-aging skincare routines.

“The fear around aging is growing,” Raghavan told Adweek. “We wanted to make it a source of joy and confidence rather than the anxiety it often is.”

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