Dove Champions Body Confidence and Girls' Joy in Sports in Big Game Ad

For the Third Year, Dove Will Show Up on Football’s Biggest Night in Support of Girls Playing the Sports They Love with Confidence and Joy

HOBOKEN, N.J., Jan. 30, 2026 — /PRNewswire/ — Beauty brand Dove is returning to the Big Game with “The Game Is Ours,” a new :30 commercial celebrating the joy, resilience, and confidence of girls when they are encouraged to focus on what their bodies can do – not how they look – when playing sports. Developed in partnership with Ogilvy, the spot will air during the second quarter of the Big Game on February 8th.

Watch the :30 “The Game Is Ours” commercial HERE

Dove research shows that one in two girls who quit sports have been criticized for their body type. As appearance-based scrutiny becomes normalized, joy erodes, and girls are pushed out of athletic activities proven to build self-esteem and body confidence. This insight underscores the importance of the Dove Body Confident Sport program, a first-of-its-kind, scientifically proven set of coaching tools launched in 2023 to help kids ages 11–17 build body confidence and feel a sense of belonging in sports.

“The Game Is Ours” centers on more than 90 young athletes in a bold, movement-driven spot where collective choreography across sports like swimming, track and field, American football and mixed martial arts captures the unstoppable force of confident girls coming together. The real sounds of their bodies during play become the soundtrack for the campaign. As their movement and voices build, their joyful sounds cut through and drown out negative body talk—proving that their joy is louder, and that the game is theirs to play.

“Girls are leaving sports at alarming rates due to body confidence pressures. Now more than ever, they deserve environments and support systems that celebrate who they are and what they can do – not what they look like,” said Marcela Melero, Chief Growth Officer, Dove Personal Care & Masterbrand North America. “This campaign is about more than a single moment, it’s part of an ongoing, long-term effort from Dove to remind every girl that her joy, confidence, and love for sports is louder than any criticism she faces.”

As part of its wider mission to keep girls confident and playing the sports they love through the Body Confident Sport program, Dove is expanding its Body Confident Collective to bring together game-changing female leaders in sport who understand firsthand how body confidence shapes girls’ experiences on and off the field. Joining forces to help build and protect girls’ body confidence and self-esteem in sport and beyond are new and returning partners:

Soccer standout Alyssa Thompson
Sports Icon and Equality Champion Billie Jean King
Basketball Coach Dawn Staley
Field Hockey Athlete and Coach Kylie Kelce
Soccer legend Mia Hamm
Coach, speaker and Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC) Founder Odessa Jenkins
Rising tennis star Victoria Mboko

The Big Game marks the first of many sports moments throughout the year where Dove will show up to help keep girls confident and playing the sports they love.

Watch the :30 2026 Big Game spot HERE, and the full :60 campaign film HERE, both available on Dove YouTube.

Your purchase of Dove keeps girls in sports. Learn more about the Dove Body Confident Sport program and how to #KeepHerConfident at Dove.com.

Agency credits:

Creative Agency: Ogilvy
Public Relations Agency: Edelman
Paid Media Agency: WPP UNITE
Social Agency: Not Actual Size
Talent Agency: United Entertainment Group
Commercial Director: Savanah Leaf of Park Pictures x Labhouse
Commercial Choreographer: Jaquel Knight

Media Contact:
Nimra Butt
Nimra.Butt@edelman.com

About the Dove Research

Dove and Nike have commissioned this survey to expose the reality of girls’ experience in sports and the impact it has on their confidence, as well as the drivers behind girls dropping out and potential solutions.

We asked 4,917 children of different ages, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and US to take part in a 15-minute online survey.

The study included 3,506 girls aged between 9-17 years old (approximately 500 from each country) and 1,391 boys aged 9-17 years old (approximately 200 from each country) who had the consent of a parent or legal guardian to take part.

About the Dove Self-Esteem Project

Dove is the largest self-esteem education provider in the world, offering no-cost, academically validated tools to parents, teachers, mentors, and kids for nearly two decades with the Dove Self-Esteem Project. To date, Dove has reached more than 137 million young people globally across 150+ countries with DSEP, with a goal of reaching 250M young lives by 2030.

About Dove

Dove started its life in 1957 in the US, with the launch of its iconic Beauty Bar and patented blend of mild cleansers and ¼ moisturizing cream. Dove’s heritage is rooted in care – proof, not promises grew Dove from a Beauty Bar into one of the world’s most beloved beauty brands.  

Real women have always been our inspiration, and since the beginning, Dove has been wholly committed to providing superior care to all, and to championing real representations of beauty in our advertising, communications, and campaigns. Dove believes that beauty is for everyone, and the Dove mission is to ensure a positive experience with beauty is universally accessible to all. 

For more than 65 years, Dove has been committed to broadening narrow definitions of beauty in the work we do. This includes the ‘Dove Real Beauty Pledge,’ and commitment to: 

Portray women as they are in real life with honesty, diversity, and respect. We feature women of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, hair color, type, and style.  
Represent individuals with zero digital distortion, with all images approved by the women they feature. This includes never using AI to alter or distort real people in our marketing, advertising or campaigns.
Help young people build body confidence and self-esteem through the Dove Self-Esteem Project, the biggest provider of self-esteem education in the world with a goal to educate 250 million young people by 2030.  © 2026 Unilever