Dove Real Beauty Case
StudyBy Samantha Emerine
Facts• Was called the campaign for real beauty• Features “real women” with “real beauty”• Questioned what “real beauty” is• Involved ads and public service
announcements.
Real Beauty Ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U&feature=related
Ethical Issue
Is it ethical for a company to use a customers
insecurities to sell a product?
Principles
“Real beauty”
The Media’s portrayal of beauty
Public Awareness
Consumerism
Credibility
Competing Principles
“Real” vs. Media Beauty
Does the concept of “real beauty” or the media’s portrayal of beauty resonates with women more?
Awareness vs. Consumerism
Is it more important to promote a health sense of beauty in women or to sell a product?
External Factors
Societies concept of beauty
High number of eating disorders in women
Low self-esteem in women
A company needs to make money.
Criticism of advertising
Du
ties to
Vario
us Pa
rties
Individual conscience
Do you feel the campaign is helpful or harmful to women?
Financial Supporters
Are other companies going to pull their advertising because they dislike Dove’s ads?
Objects of moral judgment The women who are buying Dove
Professional colleagues
Will these ads reflect badly on other cosmetics companies and advertising as a whole?
The institution
Do these ads help or hurt Dove as a company?
Society
In the long run are these ads good for societies idea of beauty?
Ethical Theories
Deontological
As a company do you have a duty to your bottom line
or
As a company your duty is to the betterment of society.
Teleological
Utilitarian: The greatest good would be to continue the campaign for real beauty.
or
The greatest good would be to stop the campaign for real beauty because it exploits women's insecurities in order to sell a product.
Aristotle’s Golden Mean
The middle way would be for Dove to continue to make informative public awareness ads but refrain from using their real beauty campaign to sell cosmetic products.
DecisionMy decision would be to keep running
the dove ads because of the utilitarian reason that the greatest good would be served by continuing the ads.
