Onslaught (Dove)

Onslaught
AgencyOgilvy & Mather (Toronto)
ClientUnilever
LanguageEnglish
Running time74 seconds
Product
Release date(s)October 1, 2007
Directed byTim Piper
Music bySimian ("La Breeze")
Production
company
Worldwide Productions
Steam
Produced byBrenda Surminski
Jeff McDougall
Country Canada
Preceded byEvolution
Followed byAmy
Official websitehttp://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/

Onslaught is an online advertising campaign created by Unilever in 2007 to promote the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. It is the third such piece to be released, following Daughters and Evolution. As with the previous spots, the 80-second spot was managed by advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and was directed by Tim Piper. The campaign won a number of prestigious awards from within the advertising industry, including at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.[citation needed]

The film begins opening titles along with the song "La Breeze", by the now-defunct English band Simian. It then dissolves to the face of a young girl. The song keeps building, repeating the lyrics "Here it comes... Here it comes..." The music takes off and the little girl is quickly followed by a bombardment of fictionalized images, video clips, product shots and advertisements, all illustrating of the impossible standards of beauty in modern media. The film ends with a shot of the same girl walking to school with her classmates, and the text "talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does" appears on the screen. The viewer is then invited to the Campaign for Real Beauty's website.