Redefining Beauty for the Last DecadeDOVE: Real Beauty Campaign

A brand from Unilever

Started out as a soap brand in 1957 in the U.S.

Has now started to sell products such as Body Washes, Hand and Body Lotions, Facial Cleansers, Deodorants, etc.

DOVE

Started out because of a study called The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report in 2004.

Found out that only 2% of the women in the world would describe themselves as beautiful.

Dove wanted to challenge the beauty being marketed by different brands. Beauty being: having flawless skin, skinny/thin bodies, etc.

Real Beauty Campaign

“The repetitive use of unrealistic, unattainable images, which consequently pose restrictions on the definition of beauty.”

The Problem

To change women’s perception of what can be defined as “beautiful.”

To let women around the world to feel more comfortable in their own skin; to encourage women to embrace their own bodies.

To initiate a discussion and debate on the definition of beauty.

“Women’s differences should be celebrated, rather than ignored, and that physical appearance should be transformed from a source of anxiety to a source of confidence.”

“You are more beautiful than you think.”

Objectives of the Campaign

Make ads showing “real women”. Dove selected women whose physical appearances were not considered as “stereotypical beauty” (women who have wrinkles, short, overweight, etc).

Use different mediums: TV commercials, magazine spreads, talk shows, and the internet.

Strategy

2004: The campaign launched on September 2004. 2005: Dove created an advertisement that featured six women with real bodies and real curves. This was used to say that not only being thin is beautiful. During this time, women visited campaignforrealbeauty.com to discuss beauty issues.2006: Evolution: a short film showing how the transformation of a model’s face through photoshop. This raised awareness on how unrealistic the beauty is being marketed to us. Today, it has over 17 million views on YouTube.This was also the year the Dove Self-Esteem Fund was created. This fund aims to inspire and educate women on the wider definition of beauty.

Campaigning for 10 years

2007: Dove celebrated “pro-age”, recognizing the beauty in women who were aged 50+ years old - the wrinkles, age spots, grey hair, etc. A short film titled, Onslaught, was also released this year telling parents to “talk to your daughter before the industry does” about beauty.2010: The Dove Movement for Self - Esteem that was created for self-esteem building and to inspire and educate women around the world has now reached 7 million girls and is aiming to reach 15 million girls by 2015.

Campaigning for 10 years

2011: The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited revealed that only 4% of women considered themselves beautiful. 72% of girls aged 10 to 17 years old felt pressured to be beautiful and 11% of girls are comfortable in describing themselves as beautiful.2013: Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches went viral last year in the internet. The video on YouTube gained nearly 135 million views and also won several awards such as the titanium Grand Prix which is awarded for “innovative and transformational work.”

Campaigning for 10 years

2014: The most recent video of Dove on YouTube for their campaign is “Patches”. This video showed a group of women who suffered from low self-esteem being prescribed with “beauty patches” but in reality, these patches did not contain any ingredient at all. This video was supposed to promote “inner beauty” in women. However, it received negative feedback and was described as “patronizing” and “garbage”. However, even though it received negative feedback, it was still able to provoke discussion; it was still able to make people talk about beauty, which is one of the goals of Dove’s campaign.

Campaigning for 10 years

Besides the results the campaign has gained throughout the last 10 years, I also learned that Dove’s campaign was somewhat the pioneer on challenging the “beauty” being marketed to us. After launching their Real Beauty Campaign, other brands such as American Eagle started using “real” girls for their products and using the slogan, “Get Real. Think Real. No Supermodels. No Retouching.”

Insights/Lessons Learned

While doing my research, I also learned that this campaign has received both positive and negative feedbacks. Positive, for being able to challenge the way we view “beauty” in our society and negative, for being hypocritical since Dove belongs to the same company that produces Axe, a brand that is said to belittle women. However, even though the brand’s sincerity is questionable, we cannot deny that Dove was able to make people discuss and debate about beauty. These people were not only able to debate with their peers but also with other people all over the world through the internet. Dove was able to make a community online that questioned and discussed real beauty.

Insights/Lessons Learned

Evolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Onslaught: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I

Real Beauty Sketches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

Patches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGDMXvdwN5c

Links

-http://www.dove.us-http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/01/30/10-years-after-doves-real-beauty-campaign-brands-are-fighting-female-form-http://www.in-mind.org/article/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-the-dove-campaign-for-real-beauty-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/dove-real-beauty-campaign-turns-10_n_4575940.html

Sources

-http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/which-doves-real-beauty-campaign-faces-real-backlash-http://adage.com/article/the-viral-video-chart/dove-s-real-beauty-sketches-viral-campaign-year/245608/

Sources