Personal care brand Dove is wading in on a hot topic in Canadian discourse: women and ageism in the workplace.
A new initiative launched on social media Sunday night, with Dove sharing its message across all of its platforms – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The post says that “women with grey hair are being edged out of the workplace,” but that together, “we can support women aging beautifully on their own terms.”
To that end, the brand is encouraging Canadians to “go grey” with the brand by turning their profile pictures greyscale and using its “#KeepTheGrey” hashtag. Dove itself has altered its logo, moving away from its traditional golden hue to a monochromatic grey one.
The gesture – spearheaded by agency partner Edelman – is also being supported by a more meaningful, $100,000 donation to Catalyst, a Canadian non-profit that works to build inclusive workplaces for all women.
The effort comes one week after news anchor Lisa LaFlamme’s firing from CTV, a move that has sparked an internal review of the workplace culture in Bell Media’s newsroom. Among the reports that surfaced last week was one from The Globe and Mail where a source within CTV claimed that Michael Melling, Bell Media’s VP of news, raised questions about allowing LaFlamme to have grey hair on the air.
Though Dove’s social media posts do not directly reference LaFlamme, Edelman’s Toronto-based ACD Mary Soroka alluded to the situation in a LinkedIn post about the new Dove campaign. Bell Media and Melling have yet to publicly comment on the reports that ageism or sexism may have had a role in LaFlamme’s departure.
The campaign aligns with much of the brand’s long-running “Real Beauty” platform, including its “Courage is Beautiful” and “Toxic Influence” efforts, which aim to create a more inclusive space for women of all ages and backgrounds within beauty marketing.
