Dove and Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker, Director and Producer Matthew A. Cherry Team Up to Inspire Hair Love in Kids

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., Dec. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dove and Academy Award-winning filmmaker and CROWN Act advocate Matthew A. Cherry announce an official partnership to ensure the next generation of Black kids develop a positive relationship with beauty. The partnership will kick off with a new collection of hair care products designed for kids with curls, coils, and waves, inspired by Matthew's Academy Award-winning animated short film, Hair Love.

The Dove Kids Care Hair Love collection offers a complete hair care routine for kids with four nourishing products: Shampoo, Conditioner, Detangler, and Curl Cream. Hair Love's main character, Zuri, is featured on each bottle wearing fun and playful styles to highlight the diversity and beauty of natural hair. Product packaging also features an empowering positive affirmation – "I am caring, brilliant, and creative" – to boost self-esteem and set kids on the right path for a positive relationship with their hair.

"Research shows that kids as young as three years old can start to build confidence when they see themselves positively represented in the world around them¹," explains Esi Eggleston Bracey, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Unilever Personal Care, North America. "Dove and Matthew have been working in parallel to create a world where natural hair is a source of confidence in young people, and we are thrilled to officially come together to nurture a positive self-image in kids and, at the same time, deliver products that offer the expert nourishment and care of Dove to Black families."

Each Dove Kids Care Hair Love product features a gentle formula and fun scent. All are dermatologist-tested and infused with shea butter and coconut oil to deliver soft, moisturized, and healthy-feeling hair. The full collection is available now on Walmart.com and will be available in Walmart stores nationwide beginning January 2022.

"Dove and I have a long history together with Hair Love, beginning in 2017, when the brand provided early funding for the project. I'm also a dedicated CROWN Act supporter and have been impressed with the ongoing work Dove is doing to advance hair discrimination legislation, particularly by co-founding the CROWN Coalition," explains filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry. "Through this partnership, we will take Zuri 'offscreen' and into the real world to inspire hair love and build self-confidence in kids everywhere."

The new Dove Kids Care Hair Love collection builds upon Dove and Matthew's ongoing CROWN commitments to Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair:

• In 2018, Dove co-founded the CROWN Coalition to make race-based hair discrimination illegal in all 50 states. To-date, the CROWN Act – or similar anti-hair discrimination legislation – has been passed in 14 states, with 36 more to go. Each Dove Kids Care Hair Love bottle features a QR code to learn more about the CROWN Act and sign the official petition to #PassTheCROWN.
   
• In addition, the Dove Self-Esteem Project – the largest provider of self-esteem education in the world – expanded its resources earlier this year to address appearance and race-based pressures and discrimination. My Hair, My CROWN is a 90-minute, academically validated, no-cost curriculum for educators, parents and youth group leaders designed to boost hair confidence in kids with textured hair.

Together, we can ensure the next generation develops a positive relationship with beauty. Visit Dove.com/CROWN to learn more and sign the petition.

#HairLove #PassTheCROWN #DoveSelfEsteemProject

About Dove
Dove started its life in 1957 in the US, with the launch of the Beauty Bar, with its patented blend of mild cleansers and ¼ moisturizing cream. Dove's heritage is based on moisturization, and it is proof not promises that enabled Dove to grow from a Beauty Bar into one of the world's most beloved beauty brands.

Women have always been our inspiration and since the beginning, we have been wholly committed to providing superior care to all women and to championing real beauty in our advertising. Dove believes that beauty is for everyone. That beauty should be a source of confidence and not anxiety. Dove's mission is to inspire women everywhere to develop a positive relationship with the way they look and realize their personal potential for beauty.

For 60 years, Dove has been committed to broadening the narrow definition of beauty in the work they do. With the 'Dove Real Beauty Pledge,' Dove vows to:

1. Portray women with honesty, diversity, and respect. We feature women of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, hair color, type, and style.
2. Portray women as they are in real life, with zero digital distortion and all images approved by the women they feature.

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.

About The CROWN Coalition
The CROWN Coalition is a national alliance founded by Dove, National Urban League, Color Of Change and Western Center on Law & Poverty, to end race-based hair discrimination in America. The Coalition, now consisting of more than 80 supporting organizations, is the founder of the CROWN Act movement and was the official sponsor of the inaugural CROWN Act legislation in California in 2019.  For a full list of CROWN Coalition members, visit www.thecrownact.com.

The CROWN Coalition is proud to support anti-hair discrimination legislation to address unfair grooming policies that have a disparate impact on Black women, men and children and has drawn attention to cultural and racial discrimination taking place within workplaces and public schools. The CROWN Coalition members believe diversity and inclusion are key drivers of success across all industries and sectors.

About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 2.5 billion people every day. We have 149,000 employees and generated sales of €50.7 billion in 2020. Over half of our footprint is in developing and emerging markets. We have around 400 brands found in homes all over the world – including iconic global brands like Dove, Lifebuoy, Knorr, Magnum, OMO and Surf; and other brands such as Love Beauty & Planet, Hourglass, Seventh Generation and The Vegetarian Butcher.

Our vision is to be the global leader in sustainable business and to demonstrate how our purpose-led, future-fit business model drives superior performance. We have a long tradition of being a progressive, responsible business. It goes back to the days of our founder William Lever, who launched the world's first purposeful brand, Sunlight Soap, more than 100 years ago, and it is at the heart of how we run our company today.

The Unilever Compass, our sustainable business strategy, is set out to help us deliver superior performance and drive sustainable and responsible growth, while:

- Improving the health of the planet;
- Improving people's health, confidence, and wellbeing; and
- Contributing to a fairer and more socially inclusive world.

While there is still more to do, we are proud to have been recognized in 2020 as a sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and - for the tenth-consecutive year - as the top ranked company in the 2020 GlobeScan/SustainAbility Sustainability Leaders survey.

For more information about Unilever and our brands, please visit www.unilever.com.

¹ Edelman Intelligence Study, December 2020

Contact:
Haley Wickham
630-415-9899
[email protected]

SOURCE Dove