“Evolution,” by Ogilvy and Mather, Toronto

The product: Unilever’s Dove brand

The creatives: Mike Kirkland, Tim Piper, Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk.

The directors: Tim Piper, Ogilvy and Mather, and Yael Staav, Reginald Pike

The brief: Create an Internet ad to promote the Dove self-esteem workshop.

The idea: The 75-second Internet ad uses time lapse photography to show an imperfect woman being transformed into a billboard model through makeup, lighting and digital photo editing.

The model: Art director Tim Piper used his friend Stephanie Betts, who isn’t a model, in the pre-production storyboard. She was asked back for the actual shoot when auditions came up wanting. “We wanted to show someone that would require a bit of makeup to look the model type,” Mr. Piper said.

The media buy: Unlike buying a television or newspaper ad, it’s free to post a video on YouTube, where the ad has been viewed about 4 million times. “This is better return on investment than we could have ever expected,” said Alison Leung, Dove Marketing Manager at Unilever Canada. The parodies: A handful of parodies have sprung up on Youtube, with men being turned into women and women being turned into zombies or homeless people. “It’s a sign of success, I guess. It’s very flattering and very funny,” Mr. Piper says.