Amazing just the way you are: Doves Beauty Campaign

Amazing just the way you are: Doves Beauty CampaignVictoria CirritoFinance MajorUniversity of Houston Clear Lake

Be glamorous, thin, beautiful, toned, dazzling; lose the bulge, get bigger hair, tame frizzy hairthe list goes on. Everywhere, there is a barrage from the beauty industry, who pushes flawless examples in front of average women, followed by an onslaught of product regiments to help them loose their flaws in order to attain that perfection. With such negative female beauty messages in the marketplace, Doves Real Beauty campaign swept over marketing like a cool breeze, inviting women to accept themselves as they were because every woman was beautiful. However, critics have been quick to point out the flaws in such a seemingly honorable mission, noting Doves profit-driven goals and the hypocrisy between Unilevers other companies. 1

Overview

In examining Doves campaign, it is important to understand the underlying conflict in the beauty industry, campaign itself, and the criticisms that followed it. 2

The Beauty Issue

Initial controversyCriticism of underweight runway modelsIssues surrounding photoshopped addsDemand for truthful advertising

Nataliya Gotsiy at Guy Laroche Spring 2007 runway

Before Doves campaign, there had always been a growing concern over the prevalence of underweight models, especially European. Reached its climax in 2006 when photos of underweight models (like Ukrainian model pictured) circulated throughout the webIssue prompted Madrid to ban underweight models from shows 2007

Retouched photos have always been controversialSince Victorian era or possibly before itAirbrushing, touching up etcPhotoshop opened a new avenue when it was created in 2003Allowed more flexibilityMore convincing touch-ups

Invention brought issue of false advertising to the forefrontPeople began to notice unrealistic models sizesDemand truthful advertising4

Doves Campaign

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Doves campaign For Real beautyRedefine the traditional standard of beauty (Lachover and Brandes 302)Create discussion on what beauty means in society (Lachover and Brandes 302)Build positive self-esteem in each woman(Lachover and Brandes 302)

In an attempt to counter the negative effects of womens advertising, Dove announced its Real Beauty campaign in 2003.

Dove commissioned a study to analyze what womens definition of beautyFindings: beauty consisted of being young, thin, white skinned, and blondeThese standards were unattainable for most womenOnly 4% of women in the world considered themselves beautiful

Decided to change the stereotypical view of beauty by stressing the significance of non-traditional models, run adds featuring real women; create global discussions about what beauty means in society through online means; create the message that every woman is beautiful; illustrate the negative and artificial images in the beauty industry

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The advertising campaign

First, to accomplish this goal, Dove created a three part advertising campaign, each featuring non-models or the average woman The first series of adds focused on Real women, challenging body stereotypes

In stage two, the adds featured women with features that could be considered flaws and opened an online discussion board to discuss if these women were beautiful or not (part of their discussion about what beauty means in society)

The last stage was Doves Pro Age campaignWith the statement that Beauty has no age limit Dove ran a series of beauty ads for older women using women over the age of 50 as models

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virtual AdvertisingStills from EvolutionStills from Onslaught

Along with revolutionary advertisements, Dove also created a breakthrough virtual campaign attacking the beauty industry.

The first video, Evolution was created in 2006 and through a series of flash film photography, documented the transformation of an ordinary woman to a cover girl finishing with a blackened screen and the tagline: No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.In 2007, Dove followed up with Onslaught another short video; this time, creating awareness of the beauty industrys negative effects on womens body images in their product marketing.This also included a compelling tagline: Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does

This video complemented its educational literature for mother/daughter and school discussions8

Surrounding Controversy

all about the money, money?Dove is a profit-driven brand owned by UnileverCampaign enabled Dove to target 62 million women and raise brand awareness by 13% (Piety 226)Helped Dove expand lines from soap to multiple beauty product(Neff 1)Dove grew substantially in sales and market shares(Piety 228)

Though Doves efforts were both awarded and praised, on the flip side, there was an equal amount of criticism.

The brunt of the criticm came from the fact that Dove is a brand owned by the profit-driven company, Unilever Taking the stance of a womans activist groupMain goal is for profit

From this Campaign, Dove was able to target 62 million women and raise brand awareness by 13% within the first yearMedia coverageVirtual advertising on websites and social networksClassroom discussionsAt-home discussionsFeatured ads and commercials

Coverage enabled it to expand its offerings from soap, to multiple beauty products

Sales increased and market shares

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Clever marketing ployDifferentiates itself from its competitors (Lachover and Brandes 303)Positioning tactic: a brand consumers can trust (Grewal & Levy 121)Part of societal marketing (Grewal & Levy 127)

Shown is the difference in the two beauty campaigns

Since Unilever is a profit-driven company; opponents of Real Beauty insist that Doves every action on this stance is part of a large marketing campaign.

In all the advertisements, but especially, in the video messages, Real Beauty is a way of differentiating Dove from the rest of the beauty industry, though not admitting that they themselves are not part of itTalk about the negative messages promoted by the beauty industryDove is part of that same industry, selling products to improve a womans appearance

Clever positioning tacticPositioning: examining a certain segment of consumers; gear their campaign towards themShows itself as a brand consumed with womens well-being

In creating the campaign, Dove engaged in societal marketingSocietal marketing is a form of marketing that creates brand value through engaging in activities that benefit societyEfforts are noted in the mediaSeen not solely as a company but almost as a charity tooIncrease sales without really selling products but by selling companys missionMakes people believe they are contributing to a mission as well as purchasing

As noted in Brandweek in 2009, consumers increased their trust in the company nine points (substantial growth) on the scale

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Doves HypocrisiesPhoto retouching scandalPositions of other Unilever brandsUnilevers opposing marketing strategies

Advertisement for Axe Body Wash

Criticism reached its peak when an interview of Pascal Dangin was featured in Advertising Age in 2007A lot of retouching had been done on the Real advertisementsTold to keep skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive

Unilever also owns both Slimfast and Axe brandsBy owning Slimfast, Unilever is engaging in the very behavior it condems in Onslaught: purging and unhealthy dieting habitsAxe has been notorious for its racy adds, objectifying women in its ads for mens productsAds have often been banned for explicit content; sexually suggestive ads; and negative portrayal of womenMany billboards and commercials have been removed because of the threat to children who might be exposed to them

As critics note, in the women featured, there is nothing hinted at true beauty, positive body image, or accepting yourself for how you are12

ConclusionThe beauty issueDoves campaignFollowing Controversy

Prompted by issues surrounding the beauty industry, Dove attempted to create a positive message through its Real Beauty campaign; the controversy that followed targeted this outreach as pure marketing and hypocritical profit seeking. Doves goals are honorable: break beauty stereotypes and teach individual self-acceptance in every woman. However, their sincerity will be tested as this marketing strategy wanes in its effectiveness. Will Dove continue to praise Real Beauty in its ads or will it quietly aim its cameras at traditional models?13

SourcesDhruv, Grewal, & Levy, Michael. (2012). Marketing. (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.Lachover, Einat, and Sigal Barak Brandes.(2009). A Beautiful Campaign? Feminist Media Studies, 9.3, 301-316. doi:10.1080/14680770903068266Neff, Jack. (2008). Digital Marketer of the Year Unilever. Advertising Age, 79.11, 50-54. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=31334949&site=ehost-live&scope=sitePiety, Tamara R. (2009). Onslaught: Commercial Speech And Gender Inequality. Case Western Reserve Law Review, 60.1, 47-93. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=51913433&site=ehost-live&scope=siteShopper Marketing. (2009). Brandweek, 50.14, REGGIE24.Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=37831603&site=ehost-live&scope=site Skinny Models Banned from Catwalk. (2006, Sept. 13). CNN World. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/13/spain.models/