Dove shows that imperfection is beautiful
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Many believe that Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty was the beginning of a movement, a movement to change how women saw and compared themselves to models after viewing advertisements in popular media. Dove started a global conversation to “widen the definition of beauty” and the beauty standards held by women all over the world. Their campaign began in 2004 and swept the nation of the United States by 2006, when one of their online video advertisements, “Evolution,” received over 1.7 million views, making it the most viewed video on YouTube in October of 2006. The campaign that attempted to combat the repetitive use of unrealistic, unattainable images that posed restrictions on the definition of beauty used women who fell outside of the lines of the stereotypical norms. Women in Dove’s advertisements resembled those who you would see around your community and area much more than the models in previous popular advertisements. Women in Dove’s commercials were unique, each characterized by wrinkles, age, and different weights. All models were beautiful in their own way, showing women that you do not need to be a cookie cutter model to love your body and feel beautiful in your skin. In totality, it broke the newest beauty standard, that in order to be truly beautiful you need to be perfect, by highlighting that imperfections brought out women’s internal and external beauty.
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty brought up fresh, new ideas that were necessary in the world of advertising in media. With the number of women who are plagued with eating disorders, depression, and extreme feelings of lessened self worth due to popular advertisements, there needed to be change. Dove recognized the major issue at hand and decided to do something about it. Following Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, in 2010, Dove created The Dove Movement For Self-Esteem that provides women everywhere with opportunities to celebrate real beauty and mentor the next generation of women, currently adolescent girls. One lesser-known feature of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is Dove’s Self-Esteem Toolkit, an “online resource that includes workshops, activities, guides, and videos all aimed at building girls’ self-esteem.” This takes Dove’s campaign even further, showing that the company has put plentiful work into changing and redefining beauty. The most important thing that Dove did when creating these positive body image campaigns is that they began a new conversation between advertisers and consumers. The company opened the door to the idea that it is not necessary to feel inferior to models and that real beauty surrounds us everywhere. Dove refused to accept the beauty standard of perfection because that is both unrealistic and unfair to consumers. Dove started the domino effect with other companies and sparked an idea that can change the world of advertising in print and electronic media. |