The Game Is Ours: Dove’s Super Bowl ad made girls’ joy louder

Girls created the soundtrack of Dove’s 2026 Super Bowl ad with the sounds of their own bodies in motion. Claps, splashes, footsteps and shouts grew into a rhythm that pushed negative body talk out of the film. Created by Ogilvy and directed by Savanah Leaf, The Game Is Ours aired during the second quarter of Super Bowl LX.

The 30-second film responded to Dove’s finding that one in two girls who leave sport have been criticised for their body type. Instead of keeping that statistic on screen, the campaign answered it with more than 90 young athletes making themselves impossible to ignore.

The Noise That Pushes Girls Out

Sport can build confidence, friendship and a stronger relationship with the body. However, it can also expose girls to comments about their size, shape and appearance.

Dove and Nike studied the experiences of nearly 5,000 children across seven countries. The research found that low body confidence was a major reason girls stopped playing. Furthermore, girls who left sport often described being mocked, judged or told they did not have the right body for it.

The Game Is Ours turned that pressure into sound. Critical voices appeared at the beginning, carrying the kind of remarks that can make a young athlete question whether she belongs.

The film then handed control to the girls.

The Athletes Became the Soundtrack

The campaign used the real sounds made during sport instead of placing a conventional song over the action. A foot hitting the ground became percussion. Similarly, hands clapping, bodies landing and voices celebrating joined the rhythm.

Those sounds grew as more athletes entered. The film brought together swimming, track and field, American football, mixed martial arts and other sports through collective movement.

Choreographer JaQuel Knight shaped more than 90 athletes into one continuous performance. Meanwhile, Leaf kept the focus on physical confidence rather than competition results. The girls were not introduced through scores, medals or records. Their movement was enough.

As a result, the phrase “our joy is louder” became something the audience could hear rather than another closing line placed over a logo.

A Different Kind of Super Bowl Sound

The Super Bowl is built around noise. Crowds shout, commentators raise their voices and advertising fights for attention during every break.

Dove used that environment to make a quieter argument at full volume. The film placed young girls inside one of the biggest nights in American sport, then let their own play fill the screen.

More importantly, the campaign did not treat confidence as a feeling girls must find alone. The athletes appeared together. One movement triggered another, and each sound added to the group. The film suggested that joy becomes harder to silence when it is shared.

The editing carried that idea through rapid changes in sport, setting and body type. Still, the rhythm held everything together. The work later received a Bronze award for editing at the 2026 shots Awards The Americas.

What Came After

The Super Bowl appearance opened Dove’s 2026 sports platform rather than closing it.

The campaign sat inside #KeepHerConfident and the Body Confident Sport programme, developed with Nike and academic experts. The free resources help coaches and trusted adults reduce appearance pressure and build body confidence among girls aged 11 to 17.

Later in the year, Dove carried The Game Is Ours into its FIFA World Cup 2026 sponsorship. A new football-focused film kept the same central thought, while the Dove Joy Cam captured girls enjoying matches for social, digital and outdoor content.

That expansion gave the Super Bowl ad a larger role. It introduced a campaign language that could move from one sporting stage to another without losing its point.

Criticism can be loud. Dove gave the girls something louder to answer with.

Credits

The Game Is Ours (2026). Dove, United States. Creative agency: Ogilvy New York. Public relations: Edelman. Paid media: WPP UNITE. Social agency: Not Actual Size. Talent agency: United Entertainment Group. Production: Park Pictures x Labhouse. Director: Savanah Leaf. Choreographer: JaQuel Knight. Director of photography: Nicolas Karakatsanis. Editing: Trim. Editor: Tom Lindsay. Award: Bronze for Editing up to and including 60 seconds at the shots Awards The Americas 2026.