DOVE | CODE MY CROWN | 2024
"We Make Games, But Hair Isn't One of Them" / DOVE "CODE MY CROWN"
85% of Black gamers say they don't see their own hair represented in video games. Dove's response wasn't an ad—it was a 200-page technical guide.
The problem
Afro fades, twist-outs, cornrows. Hairstyles that look completely normal in real life often show up in games as flattened cornrows or bald heads. Dove is a brand that has long supported the CROWN Act, which bans discrimination based on race-based hairstyles.
The insight
74% of developers said they'd gladly create these hairstyles properly if they just knew how. This wasn't a lack of motivation—it was a lack of technical know-how. Since the team behind the project were gamers themselves and part of the community, they decided to hand over tools rather than just offer encouragement.
The idea
Partnering with the Open Source Afro Hair Library, Black 3D artists, animators, and academics created "Code My Crown." This free guide contains 15 hair sculpts and 360-degree photo data, with university professors and hairstylists working together to translate the cultural meaning behind these hairstyles directly into polygons.
What happened
The guide was adopted into Activision's standard library and is being used by multiple studios. It generated 1.8 billion impressions, with reactions that were largely positive or neutral. At Cannes Lions 2024, it won Gold in Creative Strategy, Bronze in Digital Craft, and Silver in Entertainment Lions for Gaming.
Afterthought
No catchy tagline, no viral video—just a guide, distributed with the goal of becoming an industry standard. And yet, I love it. If more people can look at a screen where someone's styling their hair and think, "hey, that's me"—that's more than enough.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2024
