Thanks to The Urban Stranger, my good friend Berkley Loh’s blog, I uncovered an old great Dove commerical that I believe is deserving to write about. I remember seeing the Real Beauty Campaign for the first time in my early years of high school and it really stuck with me to the point I was “youtubing” it and showing all my friends. I was so attracted to this ad because it was so thought provoking and this was the first time that any company highlighted the artificial representation of what the public perceives beauty to be. All our idealistic depictions are simply of photoshopped women that look no different from you and me in the real world.
I conquer with Berkeley that this is one of my favourite commercials ever made. It was the big push in Dove’s launch of their Real Beauty campaign and sends a very powerful message that there is really know such thing as perfection. Ironically, It targets the same segment (young adult to middle aged North American women) as other cosmetic companies, but obviously, their approach is uniquely defined. Their campaign is so powerful because it attracts more than 95% of the female population that believes they are not their own idea of perfect. Their goal is to provide an ad that doesn’t advertise the false images of beauty stereotypes, but rather, to embrace the beauty around us and in each and every individual.
Check out this Dove Onslaught advertisement (below) that is an expansion of their Real Beauty campaign called the Dove self-esteem fund which is a creation of their newly established confidence-building program. This is a great example of Dove engaging in cause marketing where they reach for a halo effect by aligning themselves with their social cause.
