CSR initiative, in cooperation with the Panteion University of Athens, aiming to help young people feel more confident about their looks and reduce their anxieties about their face and body.
Intro
DOVE is a leading personal care brand worldwide, belonging to the Unilever portfolio. Abiding to its “real beauty” campaign and purpose, the brand developed a school program addressed to young students aged 11-15 y.o. addressing the problem of low self esteem about appearance.
Challenge
Our agency was called upon to adapt the global material and implement this program in Greek schools, and receive the approval of the Ministry of Education.
In order to enhance the program’s credibility for all stakeholders (Ministry, school community, media, etc.), we proposed a collaboration with a Greek expert institution in the area of psychology, i.e. Panteion University, Positive Psychology Department, and use Professor Stalikas and Professor Karakasidou as our spokespersons.
In addition, while waiting for the Ministry’s approval, we proposed to hold sessions with teenagers from leading NGOs and get valuable feedback from the social workers on the program. This way, we would be able to improve the “educate the teachers” sessions held following the Ministry’s approval and spread to schools throughout Greece.
Solution
The sessions were held by Professor Karakasidou herself, who carried out the activities included in the program. They were live in most of the NGOs, but we also foresaw and adapted the workshop and held it online for 2 of the NGOs supporting high risk patients where no physical contact is advised due to the pandemic.
We held 10 workshops in total, split in 2 different age groups, with the participation of over 340 teenagers. Our agency organized everything from selection of the NGOs, contacts and venue, timing, practical details, to video and photo shooting, etc.
Oucome
The workshops were successful based on the social workers’ evaluation and the reactions of the young people were “eye-openers” for the added value of the program to helping raise their self-confidence.
The kids promises to themselves about the way they will feel about their appearance from now on and the messages they will try to promote to other teenagers were really touching for all of us that participated in these sessions.
The program has received the approval of the Ministry of Education and is programmed to be implemented in 6th-9th grade schools during the 2022-2023 school year.
