Dove Soap began a refreshing, global campaign back in September 2004 with the intent of empowering “women [to] feel beautiful every day by widening stereotypical views of beauty.” The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was fostered after the commencement and publishing of the worldwide study, The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report. Throughout the course of the study it was noted that “only 2% of women around the world describe themselves as beautiful.” This daunting statistic is even further shadowed by the fact that “81% of women in the U.S. strongly agree that ‘the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can’t ever achieve.’”
The campaign to clean up the distorted views of beauty started off on a couple of fronts including the company’s own advertisements. Not only did Dove reevaluate its own ads by “featuring real women whose appearances [were] outside the stereotypical norms of beauty,” but, furthermore, they began producing “television [advertisements that] challenged society’s narrow vision that ‘one size fits all.’”
In 2006, following Spain’s sudden banning of runway models who were said to be “too thin,” Dove began releasing compelling Real Beauty films. The third beautiful addition, titled Onslaught (as featured below), was released in 2007 by Dove and Unilever and was directed by Tim Piper. The 80-second spot won several highly sought after awards from within the advertising industry, in addition to being an enlightening message warning parents, “talk to your daughters before the beauty industry does.”
If you’re interested in viewing the other ads or learning about the more than three million lives that have been touched and how you can contribute to the Dove Self Esteem Fund click here.
[Campaign For Real Beauty]
