Modern Age Battle of the Beauty

Throughout the ages, women have had to battle the stereotypes that come with size and shape. Media has changed their mind on a continuous basis on what makes the perfect look, what number is considered okay, and ultimately; how women will feel about themselves as individuals. Confidence was always considered secondary and Photoshop began to run rampant. Companies like Victoria Secret, have been in the news for cutting out entire body parts of the women on their covers and erasing “flaws” in order to sell just one more swim suit. But where and when did the line become drawn where anxiety was considered the best look and days worrying about a small wrinkle in your t-shirt from you’re your “fat” were normal?

Dove’s Movement

Dove got it. They grasped the need for real women to represent their customers. They decided to listen to women all over America and launch the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. The campaign first started just to sell their products, but ended up launching an entirely new world wide conversation. The idea behind beauty and its definition seemed unattainable. A study done showed that only 2% of women in the world would describe themselves as beautiful; that is only 65,836,100 out of 3,291,805,000. The ads promoted these conversations by asking women to judge and cast the looks (oversized or outstanding? And wrinkled or wonderful?).

Bring on the Viewers

Entering two years with outstanding results from their risky campaign, Dove produced a short film, Evolution, depicting the transformation of a real woman into a model and how the promotion of unrealistic beauty begins. With the Dove Self-Esteem Fund formed, education for girls and women about a wider definition of beauty began to take place. Its first commercial appeared during the Super Bowl reaching an estimated 89 million viewers.

What’s Left?

In 2011, studies came out showing that the numbers have grown to 4% of women describing themselves as beautiful. In another study of over 1,200 10-17 year old girls, 72% said they felt tremendous pressure to be beautiful and that decreasing positive self-image occurs the older an individual gets.

Branding Genius

Dove has continued to make strides within this field and has successfully captured the modern

day women like no company ever has before. Their success is insurmountable as they saw a problem that was occurring within their industry. Women were become property or images that were judged based solely off of their outward appearances. Dove saw this as an issue and more importantly from a branding perspective, harnessed it with all their marketing intelligence. They were able to find women that possessed the confidence they were looking for from their representatives and portray them in a way that was quite provocative. They changed the status quo and had mixed reviews across the board.

The most important part though is that regardless of the side that individuals took, everyone had

an opinion. They shared it with their neighbors, random strangers, and even newspapers. Dove was able to change the way in which advertisements were made and throw light on a world that was deeply hidden in shadows and Photoshop. Cheers to Dove to finding the confidence to give real beauty a voice and real women a chance to embrace those around them with support and appreciation. Because at the end of the day; you are beautiful whether you’re wrinkled or wonderful; oversized or outstanding.