Mindshare’s Dove ads scoop Media

A PIONEERING partnership between Dove and Pinterest has won this year’s Cannes

Lions Media Grand Prix. Devised by Mindshare, New York, the campaign encour- aged people to create their own definition of ‘real beauty’ by choosing from a selection of images and sentiments.

The aim was to challenge the stereotypical images of beauty served up by image-creating AIs, with people’s choices feeding into Pinterest’s own recommendation algorithms. The campaign garnered more than 500 million global views.

Jury President Dan Clays

“You can’t be in media and not be talking about, and applying and integrating, AI into your work. We were looking for brands who understood the impact that AI was having on their sector,” said Jury Pres- ident Dan Clays, CEO, Omnicom Media Group, EMEA.

“What we loved [about ‘Dove Real Beauty Redfined for the AI Era’] was that AI has clearly brought about a challenge for the sector, but rather than contest it, the team at Dove have worked with a critical partner to create a tool that effectively alters that algorithm, and in- serts real beauty content.”

The Media jury worked through 2,058 entries from 67 countries this year, with Clays identifying connected commerce, the power of live media and clever recycling of older content and campaigns as themes. “We also saw an entrepreneurial hacking mindset behind a lot of brands,” he said.

“Brands that understand what’s possible on the platforms, and also what’s restricted on the platforms — and how do you hack around that?”

Work using AI was scrutinised carefully. “We didn’t want AI just because. We wanted AIto be the enabler of a brilliant idea, or a brilliant strategy that would solve a problem,” Clays said.