SEEING THE BEAUTY ALL AROUND US

The Campaign For Real Beauty

BACKGROUNDThe key messages of the Dove Campaign for beauty and Self-Esteem Fund are:

To free ourselves and the next generation from beauty stereotypes

Involves creating thought-provoking ads and confidence building programs

All messaging embraces all definitions of beauty

A LITTLE GLIMPSE…

Click here for a glimpse of their advertising...

ARE THEIR BEAUTY BLOGS EFFECTIVE? Dove has created an online community celebrating the connection women share. There are

four main bloggers: a dermatologist, an entrepreneur, a teen counsellor and self-esteem expert and a spirited activist and advocate of sisterhood. Each blogger writes about their specific area of expertise and offers a chance for women to connect, share and talk about real beauty. The blog posts don’t look like they are frequently updated as most of their posts are from 2009, therefore losing some effectiveness for continuous engagement with audiences.

The campaign and its influence on body image are widely discussed in blogs and throughout the media mostly receiving praise. However, some criticize the idea of promoting “real beauty” messages through commercial beauty products.

These blogs and the campaign’s general website are a call to action for consumers to join the movement through website pledge that supports a donation by Dove for self-esteem awareness programs. The blogs also allow women to continue to debate and participate in ongoing dialogue about beauty and women’s issues by commenting on blog posts and online discussion boards.

The campaign has been highly successful with its use of a variety of tactics including: advertising, TV commercials, an interactive website, interviews, the Dove self-esteem fund and the development of several women’s programs all across the world.

BLOGS CONTINUED... The campaign fails to address the increasing self -consciousness of men and their increasing

interest in using beauty products to maintain a positive view of their image.

The blog section of the website makes note that the opinions of the bloggers are not necessarily in line with those of Dove but are still able to add value to Dove’s key messaging.

According to a case study by Melinda Brodbeck, as of June 2005, more than 1 million visitors had logged onto www.campaignforrealbeauty.com and shared their thoughts about the campaign. Their website and blogs helped effectively reach their target audience and connect on a deeper emotional level with women of many nationalities, races, beliefs, sizes and ages. Combined with their strong presence in other media channels, the Dove campaign For Real Beauty created huge buzz and reaction from the public and became a trendsetter within the beauty industry for challenging traditional beauty images and definitions.

As with any new idea that creates a lot of hype, I feel the buzz has really died down now as the idea of challenging beauty images is passé. For example, American Apparel has had ads that are provocative and challenging for a while now, Dove has just pushed that boundary further.