
Dove Australia has created the world's first makeover targeted at advertisements instead of women. Created by Ogilvy, the campaign introduces an app that lets Facebook users choose a feel-good message about women's bodies and use Dove's media buy to pump out pithy bits of positivity to the Facebook universe—to counteract those self-esteem-destroying side blurbs that ask if your love handles are overexposed and the like. The video below explains how it works. It makes it sound like an ambush—that the app somehow takes down the old ads and replaces them with yours. That's not the case. The media buy just gives users, on certain page loads, a Dove ad instead of another one. Still, that's a minor point—the Dove inventory will indeed frequently bump other ads. The interactive element is nice, too—simple and smart. And the target will love the app and forward it and rave about it because media is the best scapegoat ever created for self-esteem issues. Media is so big and out of your control and impossible to combat that it must be evil. And small steps like this, which put a modicum of control (significant or not) over advertising in the hands of the consumer, will make them feel empowered and positive about your brand as well. Of course, as always, just don't remind the Dove lovers that Unilever also makes Axe/Lynx. It tends to upset them.