With the Olympics about to begin, Dove is asking the media to change its conversations about women athletes.

The next part of its My Beauty, My Say campaign by Razorfish, is spearhead by digital interactive billboards in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, that stream actual commentary about female athletes’ looks – which the brand has been collecting since June – to highlight how often discussion focuses on their appearance rather than their abilities.

Dove has also partnered with former gymnast, Shawn Johnson, who was subjected to the humiliation of so many observations about her appearance, to encourage the public to challenge the media to do better.

Jennifer Bremner, director of marketing for Dove, stated that Dove hopes to “encourage people everywhere to join the conversation and challenge and push back against the negative commentary regarding female athletes’ looks versus their performance…If you want to criticise them, criticise them on the field, not how they look playing the game.”

Dove has also created a hub on its website where some of the “25.3 million times we’ve been exposed to media comments about a female athlete’s appearance” since April 1 2016, are documented. And where people are encouraged to take a stand against sexist language in the media, by tweeting media outlets using the hashtag #MyBeautyMySay and asking them to change offensive language in headlines and articles.

In her open letter to launch the campaign, Johnson cited some of the “insulting,” “trivializing” and “belittling” words she has recently witnessed being used to describe women athletes.

“Hot Blonde. Huge Nipples. Frizzy Hair. These are just a few of the descriptions of other female athletes I have recently seen in the media. Regardless of how strong these women’s performances were, at the end of the day, the media and the world still continue to layer commentary about their looks into their reporting of the sport. I have continuously been inspired by the Dove real beauty mission throughout my career.”

“It’s time to focus on all athletes’ performance, not their appearance. I know, because I was targeted with invasive comments about my body-starting when I was just 16 years old.

“Criticism is nothing new in the sports industry, but around 2008 was the first time that the gymnastics world was seeing success from someone who was powerful, who was more about strength than grace. In interviews, I was asked, “Do you think you’ll be successful, since you have a different body style than a normal gymnast?”

Johnson recounts how journalists, commentators, and anchors kept comparing her body to those of other athletes. She was told by the media, and the world, that she was “too muscular,” had “too much bulk,” was “too short,” “looked too young,: and had “big ears”.

“And all of this matters,” she continues.  “We have to teach women and girls that they can be athletes without worrying about their appearance.

“If you have a girl in a gym putting in the work, but you still keep critiquing her body, she’s going to lose confidence, because she’s going to feel helpless.”