An honest and enlightening challenge to beauty standards and taboos — Life under the arm made the armpit something to talk about with pride. The campaign empowered women through authenticity, knowledge, and the courage to show their bodies as they truly are.
There is still a sense of shame amongst women surrounding an irritated, hairy, or sweaty armpit. Part of the problem is that it is rarely exposed or talked about – the “normal” armpit, that is. Even though we are getting better at showing our bodies as they truly are and not be ashamed of differences, the confidence around your armpit seems to have fallen behind. Life under the arm is a whole science that deserves to be both exposed and discussed more openly.
”Life under the arm” was a campaign for Dove deodorants together with Swedish publicist Aller to highlight the taboos surrounding armpit ideals to make women feel more confident. The campaign aimed to give the target audience a greater understanding of life under the arm and thereby boost their self-esteem in this area. By lifting taboos and talking about what constitutes a healthy armpit, we wanted to help women pinpoint their insecurities surrounding this topic. The campaign was fronted by the Swedish influencer profile Bianca Kronlöf who shared her own experiences and thoughts around the topic in a genuine way. The campaign included a statement video where Bianca was interviewed to create storytelling, followed by native articles to deep dive even further in the topic. In the video, Bianca speaks openly about the topic, confidently showing her own unshaven armpits. She mentions that many people still react to her deviating from the norm of how an armpit “should” look, which is why it is so important to highlight this topic and, in that way, make it less taboo.
The campaign generated significant interest and engagement from the target audience. The average reading time of the articles was close to 3 minutes, compared to the benchmark of 2.25 minutes. The Statement video, remaining live on Aller’s website post campaign, has been viewed more than 1 000 000 times. The campaign won Native Advertising Awards 2024.
