Since 2004, Dove has been building up its “Campaign for Real Beauty”, the objective being to "create a world where beauty is a source of self-confidence, not anxiety”. After featuring women that are chubby, elderly, small, curvy – after having 'trapped' graphic artists with software that supposedly helped to improve the complexion (The Ad Makeover), Dove has launched a spot which is creating an extraordinary buzz on the web: Real Beauty Sketches. The short version has been viewed over 42 million times, and the long version more than 2.3 million! The comments, according to The New York Times, are full of praise and they all speak of the strong emotion felt while watching it.
What is it about? We see women seated in a chair, concealed by a veil from a forensic artist who sketches them just by following the description they give of themselves, without seeing them. This results in a first sketch: the woman as she sees herself.
Then another person describes the first woman as they saw her – someone they had never seen before. The artist draws a second sketch: the woman as seen by others.
When the two sketches are displayed side by side, the difference is striking: all the women saw themselves as less beautiful than the others do. Phrases they use to describe themselves reflect the stigmas in their lives ("my mother always said I had a protruding chin") ... When faced with the two sketches most of them were moved to tears, touched to discover this difference.
Dove thus confronts women with the evidence that forms their image of beauty: they underestimate themselves. In this film, so touching that I suggest you watch it here, the brand, that is never mentioned, effaces itself behind its "value proposition": restore women’s confidence in their own beauty.
