Dove is at it again…flying in the face of convention, that is. Many of you will be familiar with the Real Curves campaign used to launch Dove’s firming lotion. It was noteworthy because it featured “real” women instead of impossibly slim models. Earlier this year, the brand took the campaign into “enemy territory” by advertising on the male media niche of the U.S. Superbowl. Now the brand is undermining the foundations of the cosmetic industry with its new TV ad, Evolution.
The ad portrays the transformation of a model from an ordinary-looking person to a physically- and digitally-enhanced icon of female beauty. The message is loud and clear: what you see on billboards and in magazines is not real, but fake.
The ad closes by reminding viewers of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund and exhorting viewers to participate in the Dove Real Beauty Workshops for Girls. (Click here to go to the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty site.)
At the time this post was written, Evolution had been viewed over 65,000 times, and received an average rating of 4.5 out of 5.
To my mind, the Dove campaign is one of the most sophisticated marketing campaigns out there. Dove recognizes that a brand needs to stand for something and does so in a way that seems genuine, not contrived. But in taking on the glamour of the cosmetics industry, the people behind the campaign have taken it to a new level.
The cosmetics industry, among others, drives sales by creating a fantasy. The advertising models portray a perfection that is unobtainable to the vast majority of women. Most simply accept the hyperbole or buy into the glamour, secretly hoping that they will look and feel better if they use the products. But others – particularly adolescents– take these stereotypes at face value, and when they don’t measure up to these impossible standards, they think less of themselves.
Dove’s new ads resonate with the target audience, whether they are bothered by the