Greenpeace subverts Dove’s ‘Toxic influence’ film and calls out brand for plastic pollution

The campaign comes a week after Greenpeace activists shut down the entrances to Unilever’s HQ in Central London on 5 September, locking themselves onto barricades made to look like giant Dove products. 

Climbers unfurled a giant banner across the building bearing the message “Real beauty isn’t this toxic”, calling on Dove to ditch plastic.

According to Greenpeace’s International report, released late last year, Unilever sells the equivalent of 1700 plastic sachets per second. An estimated 6.4 billion sachets were produced by Dove in 2022, making up more than 10% of Unilever’s total sachet sales. 

A field investigation by Greenpeace South East Asia and Greenpeace UK also revealed images of Dove’s sachet waste polluting beaches and waterways in the Philippines and Indonesia. 

The latest campaign calls on Dove and Unilever to phase-out single-use plastic and transition to reusable in the next 10 years, starting with plastic sachets. 

Greenpeace is also asking the company to advocate for this same level of ambition at the next round of negotiations on a UN Global Plastics Treaty when it attends as co-chair of the Business Coalition in November.

Anna Diski, campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “This powerful film shows the genuine human reaction to the hypocrisy which seeps through Dove and its slick marketing. It’s a reaction which should worry the brand – the women and girls they claim to champion won’t put up with it and want Dove to change. 

“They know there’s no 'Real beauty' in the real harm caused by Dove’s plastic pollution. They can’t keep flooding the world with unimaginable amounts of harmful plastic. That’s why Dove must stop selling plastic sachets now and commit to phasing out single-use plastic within a decade.”

Campaign has contacted Unilever and Ogilvy for comment.