Learning from Dove – Emotionally Challenging The Conventional

Beauty: Anxiety-ridden or confidence-driven?

Dove is a renowned personal care brand that has challenged the traditional concepts of beauty. It has actually redefined beauty notions. Over the years, Dove’s award-winning advertisements have attracted attention worldwide. They have revealed the real truths about beauty.

Frankly speaking, Dove has been able to challenge audience perception of women, beauty, and wellbeing. The restricted portrayal of beauty had confined its true essence. Dove has broken the boundaries and empowered women making them more confident and self-assured.

Let’s take a sneak peek at some of the important lessons that we should learn from different beauty campaigns Dove has run over the years:

Campaign for Real Beauty

In 2004, Unilever parent company of Dove conducted a survey interviewing around 3000 women from 10 different countries. The results revealed that only 2% of the women claimed themselves to be beautiful.

This is when Dove saw the light around it and planned to rethink the belief system about female charm. It launched the “Campaign for Real Beauty” which aimed to portray real women, accurately. In a nutshell, the campaign worked to conceptualize beauty as a fountainhead of confidence, not apprehension.

“Real Beauty” emphasized changing the ways women thought about their bodies. Dove confronted existing beauty standards in the media. It empowered women to embrace and accept themselves just how they are; their hair texture, skin color, height, and weight.

In real terms, Dove has widened the beauty horizon. It has made all those precise definitions more elaborate.  

The “Evolution” Transformation

Packed with a powerful message on the unrealistic beauty standards, the “Evolution” video with its amazing tagline – “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted” worked wonders to question the conventional appearance standards.

The video featured a young woman who undergoes a transformation in how she views herself. It gave a perfect insight into how the beauty industry intends to create lasting impressions with flawless faces. The video focuses on another important aspect of the wide difference between consumer-oriented digital distribution and brand development.

Daughters – Online Interviews

Another important endeavor was the Dove “Daughters” online interviews series that talked about the personal questions young children are curious about. Also, it has made certain initiatives to leverage discussions on body confidence and self-esteem.

Dove’s ads reveal their message in succinct ways, challenging our perception of beauty.