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Featured era: 2006
Dove Evolution
“No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.”
- Featured era
- 2006
- Peak era
- 2006-2007
- Company
- Ogilvy & Mather Toronto / Dove (Unilever)
- Category
- Viral Videos
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On Video
Dove's "Evolution" advert
Plays from YouTube when you press play. Views, length and date from YouTube, October 2026.
About This Video
- From:
- Brands Vietnam
- Added:
- March 8, 2013
- Length:
- 1:14
What Was It?
Evolution is a 75-second advert for Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, made by Ogilvy & Mather in Toronto. In time lapse, a young woman, played by Stephanie Betts, is made up and styled, photographed, then reshaped in image-editing software, her neck lengthened and her eyes enlarged, until she becomes a billboard model.
Art director Tim Piper came up with the idea after seeing how much time Betts, then his girlfriend, spent on make-up. It went online on October 6, 2006, Piper uploaded it to YouTube soon after, and it spread mostly without TV airtime.
It was discussed on Good Morning America, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The View, and became the first entry to win Grand Prix awards in two categories at the Cannes Lions festival. It also inspired many parodies, most famously Slob Evolution.
Things You Probably Forgot
- The neck stretched in a photo editor
- The billboard for the made-up "Easel" foundation
- Two girls walking past the billboard
- Slob Evolution, the parody
The Story
- 2006 Evolution went online on October 6, timed to the start of Los Angeles Fashion Week.
- 2006 The parody Slob Evolution was uploaded to YouTube on December 4.
- 2017 The original video and many copies were removed from YouTube over a music licence.
Its Legacy
The original upload was removed from YouTube in 2017 after a music licensing claim, but copies like this one remain. It is still remembered as an early viral advert about retouching and beauty standards.
Memories
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