Dove Drops Age-Defying ‘Beauty Never Gets Old’ Campaign

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.”

At the same time, the legacy brand’s research also found that younger women wanted to hear from modern elders about their skin care practices.

With the work, Dove aims to “create a generational connection and acknowledge the role older women have played in shaping the landscape of today,” Raghavan said. The target, then, isn’t just women over 60 but also “a larger cohort of consumers.”

As a soundtrack for the spot, the team chose a catchy Meghan Trainor dance-club hit called “Me Too,” often referred to as a self-confidence anthem. Shot recently in London, “Beauty Never Gets Old” comes from Emmy-winning director Reed Morano and production company Caviar. 

A bar soap ‘renaissance’

The campaign launches as Dove Body Bar edges toward septuagenarian status itself—it’s now 67 years old—and the bar soap category is having a bit of a renaissance in an industry better known for what’s new and next, Raghaven said. 

The segment, with brands like Olay, Pears and Neutrogena, sits in the broader body care market, which reached $32 billion in 2023, per Mintel. Sales had dipped as consumers turned to shower gels and other liquid products.

But there’s been an uptick in interest, as part of a back-to-basics trend percolating on social media. Other reasons for the bar soap revival range from nostalgic appeal to inflation and sustainability. A growing number of influencers are citing bar soaps as the greenest option and the better buy, with generally lower price points and longer lifespans.

Dove’s campaign will get an aggressive push via broadcast television during airings of ABC’s reality blockbuster The Golden Bachelor and other programs. Deals with influencers come via collaborator Obvious.ly.

Other paid media via Mindshare includes social and digital buys and out-of-home takeovers in high traffic areas of Los Angeles and New York’s Times Square.