Dove Campaign for Real Beauty - Celebrating All Women

In 2005 Dove Soap launched an ad campaign featuring real women. Ones who didn't fit the industry standard. They were a cross-section of society, different races and ages, curvy, plump, pale, freckled, fit, unconventional, and gorgeous in their own way. I remember hearing comments like, "What do they think their doing? Who wants to look at that? She looks like my mother! I want Victoria's Secret girls!"

I couldn't help but chuckle. Tyra Banks is one of the most beautiful and celebrated models in the world but after following her television show for a few episodes it became apparent that she's shaped much more like me and my friends than her famous Victoria's Secret pictorials would lead you to believe. Like all models, Tyra had been photoshopped seven ways to Sunday.

Funny thing is....the beauty industry didn't need to rework her into an unacheiveable image. She was gorgeous before they ever turned their computer mouses loose to "touch up" her photos.


Dove realized this, not nessecarily about Ms. Banks but about all models, all women, and the images mass media was selling a whole generation of growing girls. The company made a bold move to do something about it, to expose the secrets of their own industry, and hopefully reverse some of the damage to the self-esteem of millions of young women.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and Dove Self-Esteem Fund have launched print ads and particularly a series of television ads to further the cause. The evolution commercial shows the transformation of an every day pretty girl to a cover creature that only exists in a photoshopped folder on a laptop. The end tag says, "It's no wonder our perception of beauty is so distorted." All I can say is, "Amen."

On their website, http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.co.nz/site/default.asp, Dove provides resources for getting involved, mentoring girls and promoting positive body image, and a forum where you can express your views.

This is a quote from Leanne Landolfi, Brand Manager, Dove Australia. Hopefully, more beauty companies will follow suit and begin to sell a real and realisitic idea of beauty.

"Being a global beauty brand, we strongly believe that it is our responsibility to make women feel more beautiful every day. As girls care about the way they look from such an early age, we believe that it is extremely important to encourage younger girls to build a healthy body image and to have a balanced view on what real beauty is."

She continued, "This is a long-term commitment from Dove. We will be setting new goals for the Fund each year, reviewing past activities and assessing their effectiveness in building the body image self-esteem of young people. The Fund has already made a big impact in other countries, and we are tremendously excited about the potential for it to become a positive influence."

I will be buying Dove products and supporting their efforts. Ideas are alreay changing. I asked my daughter to sit with me and watch the evolution commercial.

When it was finished she said, "Yeah, I know that and I like the way I look."

"Well, alrighty then." I beamed with pride.