75. Challenging the stereotyped beauty standards


Beauty, the word holds a different meaning for different eyes but our societal norms have forced us to standardise the definition of it into an almost unattainable projection. To break this beauty stereotype Dove launched a campaign called Real Beauty in 2004 with Edelman as their consulting firm.
A research conducted by the brand showed that only 2% of women consider themselves beautiful. 


The lack of confidence and the fear of judgement that women go through makes them think of themselves as average. Dove decided to design a campaign taking this as an insight to challenge the idealized depictions of beauty. The brand came up with a campaign that depicts the real beauty of women. This is a huge breakthrough. Amongst brands which chose celebrity actress with unattainable beauty standard, Dove came up with a new thought.

This is a long duration campaign with an idea that became the part of the brand’s identity. Starting in 2004, the campaign thought has been carried by Dove over the years through their PR activities, Advertisement and marketing campaigns. Since then the brand has started taking real women from the society representing the diversity in beauty as their advocates. This makes the brand relatable and makes communication more effective.

Continuing the campaign, in 2017 Dove announced their Real Beauty Pledge. Under this, the their promise is to-

1. Always feature real women never model.

2. Portray women as they are in real life.

3. Help girls build body confidence and self-esteem.

For the Pledge, Dove collaborated with renowned photographer and creative director Mario Testino who photographed 30 portraits capturing the beauty of women from around the world.

Dove Global Vice President, Sophie Galvani, said, “While the beauty landscape is wildly different to what it was in 2004, our commitment to redefining beauty hasn’t changed. The women and girls photographed celebrate true global diversity; each has her own unique beauty story and is a true inspiration for women everywhere.”

The long and continuous activities are undertaken by Dove to ingrain the idea of Real beauty in the society and to erase the idealized depictions of beauty shows their commitment for the subject.

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