Dove launches a new campaign to inspire confidence in the 90 per cent of women who feel bad about their underarms.
Popular personal care brand Dove is celebrating the arrival of its new and improved Advanced Care deodorant range by launching a confidence-boosting campaign with the support of six well-known Kiwis.
Led by former Black Fern and Olympic athlete Huriana Manuel-Carpenter, it comes just in time for Body Confidence Day on Sunday, 17 October 2021.
The campaign, #ArmsUp, is being launched in New Zealand in response to Dove-commissioned research, which found that a significant 90 per cent of women said that they had felt bad about their underarms at some point in their lives.
The research also found that 90 per cent of women feel that there is a societal pressure to have an “ideal, feminine underarm” and 60 per cent said that worries about their underarms had restricted them from doing something in their lives.
Jessica Hume from Dove says “Dove has a long legacy of championing real beauty, and that includes challenging narrow ideas of what an acceptable underarm looks like.
Dove believes that all underarms are beautiful and we want women to feel confident about their own.
“The fact that 60 per cent of women have altered their behaviour due to underarm worries shows that this conversation is overdue. We hope that through this campaign we can get a more diverse and accurate reflection of women’s underarms out into the media and onto social media.”
“Kicking off on Body Confidence Day, we will be sparking this important conversation by encouraging Kiwi women to raise their #ArmsUp to celebrate their unique underarms and champion their own body confidence.”
Together with Manuel-Carpenter, the campaign has the support a diverse range of body-positive voices in the public sphere including real beauty advocate and author Jess Quinn, sexologist Morgan Penn, content creator and comedienne Tia Reweti alongside social activists, Brittany and Johanna Cosgrove (A.K.A. the NOPE Sisters), who will all be raising their #ArmsUp and seeking to inspire other Kiwi women to do the same.
Dove Ambassador Huriana Manuel-Carpenter said, “The role of social media and society’s perceptions about what is attractive, including female underarms, is shifting. The dialogue around beauty standards and body confidence is evolving. People are embracing their natural beauty, and the uniqueness of their underarms, whether that’s their body hair, skin pigmentation, or any natural lumps, bumps, and markings.”
“Confidence is so important, especially when I’m working out. My underarms are on show a lot. I have markings and discolouring from having bubs, and it has left me with insecurities around my underarms, but at the end of the day there is really no such thing as “perfect pits”. I am embracing my own uniqueness and natural beauty and wearing them with pride.”
Dove Advanced Care deodorant is Dove’s most caring antiperspirant spray ever.
With ¼ moisturising cream, caring oil and uncompromised 48hr protection, it is now kinder to skin and designed to deliver the best care, for all underarms, however they are.
Jessica Hume at Dove concludes, “Dove Advanced Care is a breakthrough formulation, our biggest step-change in ten years and undoubtedly our most caring aerosol formulation ever. We want to mark its launch in a big way by helping normalise the conversation around underarm stigma so all women can feel inspired to raise their #ArmsUp.”
Dove is a long-time champion of positive body confidence, having launched its Real Beauty campaign in 2004.
The globally recognised platform prioritises inclusive representation of real women in its advertising.
It also runs the Dove Self Esteem Project, aiming to enhance the self-esteem and positive body image of 250 million young people around the globe by 2030.
