The Dove Beauty Campaign
http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx
In 2004, Dove launched the Campaign For Real Beauty. This campaign was created with the goal of widening the public’s view of beauty and sparking conversation about the issues with societies standards and expectations for women and their body. A research study done by Dove prior to the campaign provided concerning statistics about women and their self-esteem, such as, “that only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful”. It was frightening statistics such as these that inspired Dove to push forward with hopes of making beauty a “source of confidence, not anxiety”.
A main part of the campaign and one that caused an uproar in the media was the launch of the short film, “Evolution”, in 2006. The idea for this was based off of Spain banning models that were too thin from walking on their runways. “Evolution” shows the process that a model goes through before her photograph is actually published or shown to the public. It shows everything from her makeup and hair alterations, to her face being edited and trimmed down by Photoshop in order to make her more “beautiful”. The photo of the woman that is shown at the beginning of the process and the final product do not even look as if they are the same person. The results are mind-blowing and considered by many to be somewhat disturbing.
The third phase of the campaign began in 2007, when Dove began to put more focus on women ages 50–64 and find out what their opinions were on societies changing views on beauty. The results from this found that “91% of women ages 50–64 believe it is time for society to change its views about women and aging”.
But the efforts did not stop there. Three years later, in 2010, Dove released an entire new plan called the Dove Movement for Self- Esteem. The Dove Movement for Self-Esteem provides women with a more hands-on approach to improving this issue. Workshops and educational programs have been set up all around the world to teach younger women about what beauty really is and to help them to feel more comfortable in their own skin. The article states that, “Dove® has reached over 7 million girls so far with these programs, and set a global goal of reaching 15 million girls by 2015.”
The end of the story emphasizes the amount of work that still needs to be done with this issue. While the Dove campaign had a significant impact on the public and was a step in the right direction, they need more people and other companies to put forth as much effort as they have.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
