Dove's US Open Return Pairs Fashion Photographers With Antiperspirant Marketing

What Dove's Second US Open Sponsorship Includes

Dove is returning to the US Open for a second year as the tournament's official underarm sponsor, but the 2026 campaign is built around fashion as much as sweat protection. The Unilever personal-care brand is working with photographers Tyrell Hampton and Johnny Criollo to document stylish outfits at the tournament, while a “Racquet Report” social series with the USTA will feature comedian Carly Aquilino interviewing fans.

The “Don't Sweat It. Make A Racket.” platform promotes Dove Invisible, an antiperspirant positioned around leaving no white marks on clothing. Kevin Tolson, head of Dove and SheaMoisture deodorants at Unilever, said the goal is to let people make a statement with match-day outfits or cheer at home without worrying about sweat marks.

Alongside video and out-of-home ads, Dove is putting money into on-the-ground activations. It will run a refreshment space at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and is covering food and drinks at 10 women-owned bars around the United States for the Women's Finals. The tournament starts Aug. 23, and the campaign arrives during an unusually hot season that could increase demand for underarm protection.

How Unilever Is Turning Sweat Marketing Into a Sports Growth Engine

The product demo is hiding inside a fashion story

Dove's central selling point is functional: Dove Invisible is supposed to prevent white marks on clothing. Instead of showing a conventional deodorant test, the campaign gives photographers a reason to capture real outfits at a high-profile event. That moves the brand from a sweat-avoidance message to a style-confidence message, which fits Dove's long-running empowerment positioning.

Unilever is scaling a social-first play from FIFA to Flushing Meadows

The US Open activation follows Unilever's large FIFA World Cup presence, which the company says involved more than 50,000 global content creators. Unilever reported 5.9% underlying sales growth in its personal-care segment in Q2, partly attributed to World Cup activities. CEO Fernando Fernandez called FIFA proof of a new social-first model of reach and engagement. The US Open is a smaller property, but it lets Dove test the same creator- and community-led approach around a specific product claim.

Dove is buying local relevance, not just broadcast impressions

The 10 women-owned bars and the on-site refreshment space give the sponsorship a community layer that a standard out-of-home campaign would not have. The Women's Finals tie-in also aligns the underarm message with the brand's female-empowerment theme. At the same time, sister brand Degree is running its own sweat-themed campaign, including renaming New York City subway stations to reflect hot conditions, so Unilever is now pushing sweat narratives across multiple brands in a crowded summer moment.

What Dove's Playbook Means for CPG Marketers

For CPG marketing and brand executives

• Treat the Dove campaign as a live case in product-led sponsorship. The brand is using Tyrell Hampton and Johnny Criollo's fashion photography to prove Dove Invisible's no-white-marks benefit rather than asserting it in a traditional ad; if your brand makes a functional claim, build the creative around a real, photographable use case.
• Use Unilever's own data as a benchmark: the company credits its FIFA World Cup activation and more than 50,000 creators with contributing to 5.9% personal-care underlying sales growth in Q2. A US Open-sized property can test whether a smaller creator and hospitality program delivers a measurable lift without FIFA-level budgets.
• Compare the two Unilever sweat campaigns before your next heat-season buy. Degree's subway renaming and Dove's US Open sponsorship target the same August window; the results should signal which sweat-marketing mechanism — local stunts or tournament fashion content — is more efficient for your category.