Dove has always challenged narrow beauty standards. It’s why the brand co-founded the Crown Coalition in 2019 to advocate for legal protection of Black hair textures. But hair discrimination remains a systemic problem in the workplace. Black women with natural hairstyles are 2.5x more likely to be seen as ‘unprofessional’ by hiring managers and recruiters.

In 2022, signatures for the CROWN Act had stagnated. The Black community was not associating CROWN with Dove.

We developed the #BlackHairIsProfessional” campaign and took to the place where careers are launched with a partnership between Dove and LinkedIn that quickly became Dove’s most successful to date.

Dove led the conversation, using our owned hashtag #BlackHairIsProfessional to share powerful campaign visuals. We continued our unique multi-channel approach, with a TV spot airing during the 2023 BET Awards. The women featured in the spot were selected from the hundreds of women who engaged with the static LinkedIn posts because we wanted to ensure we were sharing authentic Black experiences.

Alongside the campaign, we released a selection of free bias trainings across LinkedIn’s platform, inspiring Fortune 500 companies, hiring managers, and people teams to reach out about the campaign and get involved with the CROWN Act.

#BlackHairIsProfessional provided the spark to engage the business community i the fight to pass The Crown Act, pushing Dove over its goal of 500,000 petition signatures. #BlackHairIsProfessional gained more than seven million views within the first two weeks, empowering all professionals to change what is deemed ‘professional’ within their own organizations. The campaign garnered over 150 earned placements and over 1B earned impressions in the U.S., along with 300,000 completed LinkedIn Bias trainings.