David Pocock partners with Dove to tackle out-dated perceptions of masculinity
Dove is attempting to shift perceptions of masculinity in its latest campaign, which has seen Dove Men+Care collaborate with rugby union player David Pocock.
The Strength to Care campaign, created by Octagon, aims to start conversations with Australian men about where real strength comes from and is brought to life through a video series that sees Pocock’s journey to finding his voice and the value he places on speaking up for issues and causes he believes in.
The first video of the series sees Pocock explain why he stopped a match between the Brumbies and Waratahs in 2015 to call out an opposition play for a homophobic slur.
Pocock said: “The thing I hope people will take away from watching these films is that strength is an inner quality. It’s something that we cultivate within ourselves and it allows us to be more fully ourselves and to express all the different parts of ourselves to the people around us.
“It doesn’t lock us into certain gender roles. We can be ourselves, we can love more wholeheartedly and really offer more to our friends, to our family and just to society.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifm-YqmD97g&feature=youtu.be
“I think the positive impact this Dove Men+Care Strength to Care project can have is to get people to think about what it is to be a man. To challenge their ideas of masculinity and to hopefully have a conversation with the people they care about,” Pocock said.
The Journey to Strength video series will be released in line with the 2016 Cook Cup Rugby Test Series against England from June 11.
Credits:
- Lead agency / creative: Octagon
- Production company: Milkmoney
- Media: PHD
- Digital: TBWA
- PR: Liquid Ideas
Well done Dove on working with an absolute hero of a bloke. Great example of a brand aligning its values with an ambassador. Really well executed with restraint to not squeeze in the product unnecessarily.
Great work! Nice story and really well produced.
Excellent choice in Pocock. Perhaps a bit of a brand stretch but nice content nonetheless.
Social policy and advertising don’t shouldn’t mix, the imperative to tell the audience what they want to hear, is likely to corrupt the message about what they should hear. It is more than a bit tacky. And using some young footballer, who has no real affinity with the men of Australia working in proper jobs and raising families, to tell them to be more caring is very hard to swallow. One star.