How does a large corporation live its values and create positive social change on an issue where it’s made public missteps? This is the central challenge Spitfire is tackling with Dove’s campaign against hair discrimination.
Despite a history of inclusive campaigns about the many shapes, sizes and colors women come in, Dove has stumbled in some of its messaging around Black women and race. Recognizing Spitfire’s strong track record with groups fighting all types of bias, Dove’s leaders recently brought Spitfire onto an inter-agency team of experts. More specifically, the company was excited to draw on our team’s past successes on this issue with high-profile civil rights groups’ work on hair discrimination, such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Color of Change.
Together, Spitfire and Dove’s team recognized we needed to profoundly shift the ways the company connects with grassroots organizations and talks about the issue in meaningful and authentic ways, especially as they come on board existing policy advocacy efforts. So we’ve taken on a critical role as advocacy sounding board, which will expand early this summer through Spitfire’s Planning to Win® campaign training for Dove brand staff.
Even this early in the game, Dove’s campaign has notched a critical win with the passage of anti-discrimination legislation through California’s state Senate: a bill which is expected to pass through the California State Assembly with flying colors. In our role as campaign strategist, Spitfire is now helping the company lay the ground work for similar legislative pushes in New York, New Jersey and at the federal level.
