Dove’s latest installment in its “Real Beauty” campaign — “Choose Beautiful” — takes the viewer around the world to candidly observe women choosing to walk through doors marked “beautiful” or “average.” Most choose “average.” One woman walks away from both doors altogether.
The video includes scenes from London, Delhi, San Francisco, Shanghai and Sao Paolo as it attempts to bring about the same effect that made the campaign so successful when it started in 2004 — a genuine discussion about unrealistic standards in the beauty and advertising industries.
Both consumers and the ad industry have lauded “Real Beauty” in the past. “Sketches” won a Titanium Grand Prix in Cannes, “Evolution” brought Cannes gold home to Canada, and media outlets around the world have covered just about every execution in between.
However, like the campaign’s previous global hit,”Beauty Patch,” “Choose Beautiful” is sparking debate about whether Dove is still continuing the conversation that it started in 2004, or if it has lost what made it effective in the first place.
Ugh, #ChooseBeautiful. There are a million other things I would rather choose to be in life. Happy. Successful. Fulfilled. Well-read. Smart.
— Wendy Felton (@wendymfelton) April 9, 2015
So umm, why must we #ChooseBeautiful? Are you saying average is horrible and that I MUST think I am beautiful to be happy? Lol, Dove. LOL.
— Foram Divrania (@cluelessforam) April 9, 2015
Thanks to @DoveCanada for starting this important conversation for us #ChooseBeautiful
— Erica Ehm (@YummyMummyClub) April 10, 2015
Here’s the chatter about Dove’s latest effort.
Alexandra Petri, Washington Post
“The formula is always the same. Dove finds women and the women do not think they are beautiful. The women hate their curls, or, when asked to describe themselves to a sketch artist, the women present pictures of some sort of horrible ghoul. Dove shows them how wrong they are. Roll credits. Or Dove takes us behind the Photoshopped magic that creates our ideals of beauty and punctures their artifice. Or Dove takes the radical step of taking a picture of a Normal Person. It’s intriguing that the strand of feminism that points out that Societal Beauty Standards have gotten out of whack is sufficiently mainstream that Dove can actually use this tactic as a Successful Marketing Strategy. It’s nice to be pandered to by people undermining unrealistic beauty standards, for a change.
All these stunts are naturally viral, including the prank-like feel and the reveal (“Dove knew you were beautiful all along.”)
And yet. There’s something deeply manipulative about your soap telling you to question the very beauty standards that keep its whole industry afloat. And the symbolism’s not quite airtight. Shouldn’t the “Beautiful” and “Average” doors lead somewhere different? Maybe the women were just being practical, not illustrating that the system had Crushed their Fragile Spirits.”
Susan Krashinsky, The Globe And Mail
“The tone of the more recent videos, however, is more condescending. The campaign implies women need to simply rise above the intense scrutiny over their appearances that they face every day. More importantly, it implies beauty is somehow a core element of a woman’s self-worth. If women are anxious about the beauty ideals presented to them, is the best solution to symbolically pat them on the head and tell them they are pretty? Or, should Dove evolve its campaign by discussing the larger scope of what makes women feel confident and fulfilled?
…
The video raises troubling questions for Dove’s marketing team. For one, women are rated on their appearance all day, every day. Passing strangers on the street regularly feel free to evaluate women vocally, or to tell them they would be prettier if they smiled. Is asking women to subject themselves to public physical evaluation really the best exercise for a brand built on promoting self-esteem?”
Teressa Iezzi, FastCoCreate.com
“Lately, as the campaign ages, and as the rest of the brand world has upped the ante with female-positive linkbait, Dove ads seem to just be using women as props, insulting rather than serving them (see: the “Beauty Patch” spot wherein women are “tricked” with a placebo medicinal patch they are told will make them more beautiful). As the campaign progresses, each new iteration feels more forced and stunty than the last, and, again, each feels like it’s putting women in the exact spot that “Real Beauty” was meant to release them from—feeling like their entire existence is about physical beauty. Feel beautiful dammit! What’s wrong with you?
…
“In the end, the best thing that happens in this spot is at 1:47, when one heroine looks at the door choices, and seems to say, “fuck this,” and turns around.
A message of self-acceptance is absolutely welcome – it’s needed in advertising. And sticking with a big marketing platform long-term is a rare and excellent thing. Dove should be applauded for that, and the fact that clear, concise insights (and short briefs) drive its communications.
“But maybe Dove needs to step back and stop trying to top itself, and reassess how the message behind Real Beauty can best be conveyed, in a way that’s more…real.”
