From a distance, the billboard at Square One shopping mall in Toronto looked like a large-format photograph of a teenage girl with text across her face: “Over 50,000 cosmetic injectables were performed on our teens last year.” A few steps closer, shoppers realised the image was not printed on the board. It was made of thousands of syringes, each one the same medical-grade instrument used in the Botox, collagen, and dermal filler procedures it was counting.
The Statistic That Started It
Dove and Ogilvy Toronto commissioned research through Vividata, a Canadian consumer insights firm, to understand the scale of cosmetic injectable procedures among Canadian teenagers. The 2023 findings confirmed what dermatologists and youth mental health advocates had been observing: more than 50,000 Canadian girls between the ages of 14 and 17 had undergone cosmetic injectable treatments in the preceding year.
The same research found that 74% of Canadian girls in that age group wanted to change at least one thing about their appearance. Over a third said they were unhappy with how they looked. Sixty-two percent said they wanted to be more beautiful. The average age at which Canadians were receiving cosmetic injectables had been declining year on year.
These were not girls making informed adult decisions about optional beauty procedures. These were teenagers whose faces were still developing, receiving invasive treatments driven by the unrealistic standards they were encountering daily on social media feeds.
The Installation
The Injectable Billboard was erected at Square One in Toronto on April 5, 2023, and stood for three days. The installation was a 14 by 12-foot structure made from tens of thousands of medical-grade syringes, arranged in a configuration that reproduced the image of a teenage girl’s face from a distance. The syringes were colour-coded to produce the tones and details of the face, so that the image resolved clearly only when viewed from several metres away. Up close, it was impossible to see the face without also seeing the thousands of needles producing it.
Ogilvy Toronto and DAVID Miami worked with production company Parade across numerous test configurations to determine the arrangement that would have maximum visual impact at both distances. CCO Francesco Grandi of Ogilvy Toronto described the key constraint: “The key was to make sure the 50,000 stat was legible.” The production team confirmed that building a 14 by 12-foot installation from thousands of syringes is not a standard billboard construction challenge.
The Dual Impact of the Format
The design of the Injectable Billboard operates on two registers simultaneously. From a distance, it communicates a number. From up close, it communicates what that number actually looks like, in physical, tactile terms. A teenager whose face is reproduced through syringes is, visually, a teenager whose face has been pierced by syringes. The metaphor does not require explanation. The installation makes the harm of beauty standard pressure visible as a physical act on the face of the person experiencing it.
Francesco Grandi described the decision to visualise the statistic rather than simply state it: “Every time a young girl scrolls her feed, she’s bombarded with toxic beauty content. No wonder the average age of cosmetic injections keeps getting younger. These girls are feeling pressured to alter the way they look, when they are still changing and developing. When we discovered the 50,000 stat, we were shocked. We thought the best way to bring attention to the issue was to visualise it.”
Rafael Donato, CCO of DAVID Miami, described the intended outcome: “This billboard represents the thousands of teenage girls who received a cosmetic injectable treatment over the last year, likely to fit into unrealistic beauty standards after being exposed to toxic beauty content on social media. Hopefully this piece will ignite a conversation and lead to real action to minimise the types of harmful messages young people are exposed to daily that tells them they need to look a certain way to be beautiful.”
The Results
The billboard stood for three days at Square One. The digital and social campaign surrounding it ran significantly longer. Over 75 million people were reached with content related to the Injectable Billboard. More than 76,000 signatures were gathered for an online petition connected to the campaign.
Dove’s Brand Power scores in Canada grew to double those of closest competitors Aveeno and Nivea in 2023, a year in which the Injectable Billboard was the only uniquely Dove Canada brand activation in market. The Strategy Awards 2024 data confirmed a 29-point Brand Power lift year-over-year, representing a 21.5% difference and translating to a 13.76% increase in brand penetration according to Kantar’s Brand Power model.
The campaign was also recognised at industry awards including a Clio Silver in Creative Effectiveness, a Clio Health Bronze in OOH, a Cannes Lions shortlist in Outdoor Display, London International Awards Finalist recognition in Corporate Social Purpose and Responsibility, Silver at the Advertising and Design Club of Canada in Data Visualisation and Experiential, and Bronze in OOH Enhanced and Public Service Non-Traditional. It was named among Best of Ogilvy 2023.
The Platform It Belongs To
The Injectable Billboard is part of Dove’s Self-Esteem Project, the 20-year brand platform built around the argument that beauty standards cause measurable harm to young people and that advertising has a responsibility to challenge rather than reinforce those standards. Previous activations under the same platform include the Reverse Selfie film, which showed a young girl’s social media selfie editing process in reverse, the #DetoxYourFeed campaign, and a supporting role in advocacy for the 2023 Kids Online Safety Act in the United States, developed in partnership with Common Sense Media and ParentsTogether Foundation.
The Injectable Billboard is the Self-Esteem Project at its most direct: a physical object that translates a data point about teenage harm into an experience that bypasses the viewer’s emotional defences before they have decided whether to engage with the subject.
Campaign Name: Injectable Billboard
Agency Name: Ogilvy Toronto / DAVID Miami / PR: Edelman / Paid Media: PHD / Production: Parade / Director: Anthony Ayotte
Brand Name: Dove / Unilever Canada
Location: Square One Shopping Centre, Mississauga, Toronto, Canada (April 5 to 7, 2023)
