Dove 'Evolution': a 75-second unmasking of beauty ads — double Cannes Grand Prix

In 2006 the Dove Self-Esteem Fund in Canada needed a low-cost film to invite mothers to sign up their daughters for Real Beauty workshops. Art director Tim Piper proposed a series of inexpensive one-minute online films under the umbrella 'Beauty Crackdown', each attacking a different piece of modern beauty culture; the team made 'Evolution' in tandem with 'Daughters' on the same small budget.

The idea came from watching his girlfriend apply make-up. 'Evolution' compresses the whole illusion into 75 seconds: Stephanie Betts arrives make-up free and ordinary, spends hours being styled, then gets airbrushed in Photoshop until her neck lengthens, her eyes widen and her skin smooths into a face that no longer resembles her — finishing as a billboard.

Ogilvy & Mather Toronto launched the film online on 6 October 2006 on the Campaign for Real Beauty site instead of buying media, betting that people would pass it on. Within weeks it had more than 1.7 million YouTube views, free airtime on Ellen, The View, Entertainment Tonight and Today, and drove three times the traffic of the brand's $2.5 million Super Bowl spot from the year before, according to Alexa.com.

The film took a D&AD Yellow Pencil in 2007, then became the first execution in Cannes Lions history to win both the Film and Cyber Grands Prix — the festival jury president called it 'a big idea, beautiful execution and a powerful story'. An accidental 'Dove Films' opening title, added to fix a continuity problem, turned the brand into what felt like its own production company.