Dove: "Real Women" Campaign

[xxilovepinkxx]

the whole concept is wonderful i love all the videos on youtube

 

[Deleted member 82231]

I'm one of the few people that hates it. I know I may sound immature but I am not in the target audience for Dove-I'm an 18-year old female-and I really don't want to see the ad campaigns with their idea of what beauty is. I have my personal ideals of what I see beauty to be, and another person might have theirs. I know from experience that Dove isn't that great anyways, so it gave me another reason to not buy from them.

The sad truth that I see it as being like a lot of fashion ad campaigns, where the wrong model can ruin the ad. I am all for seeing someone like Crystal Renn do it though, because in my opinion their real women don't have that "something else" that models have. It's an aura, it's a confidence, it's a sense of being totally comfortable with the camera.

That was just my opinion. In a class I had last year I got hell for saying that I hated this ad because I'm a supporter of models getting ad campaigns, however the Dove ads aren't necessarily going to appeal to the same people who read a lot of the fashion magazines and are the model fans like how I am.

This was a really great response Trista

 

[AD073018]

I dislike the use of the term "real", and the women in their underwear (where are the "real women" with skinny butts, no hips, and naturally big breasts? I don't feel represented, damnit but appreciate what they're trying to do.

I completely agree with you! I feel like these adverts are telling us that only women of a certain shape and size are "real" which is just silly really. I see that Dove is trying to show that "average" women should feel proud of their bodies but they've sort of contributed to the anti-thin crusade. Some women are just thin and I don't think they should be excluded from being "real".

 

[thebeautybrains]

i don't think this approach is novel. think about who uses dove. customers can identify with these women so there they are. dove isn't trying to get you to accept yourself. it's just a new strategy that may turn out to be very profitable.$$

The people in the Dove commercials also use expensive stuff like La Mer. Real models don't use real products.

I don't know how profitable it will be. This campaign is costing them a huge amount of money. They have to sell a lot of lotion to makeup that money.

 

[eternitygoddess]

The sad truth that I see it as being like a lot of fashion ad campaigns, where the wrong model can ruin the ad. I am all for seeing someone like Crystal Renn do it though, because in my opinion their real women don't have that "something else" that models have. It's an aura, it's a confidence, it's a sense of being totally comfortable with the camera.

I think real women have authenticity and actual confidence. Models are sometimes the most vapid, lifeless, and mudane creatures on the planet.

 

[kissmesweet]

Lovely ads. Just very interesting and real. This is the sort of ads we should be viewing!

 

[DP_woman]

This ad is marketing plain and simple. This is what the average woman looks like--slightly overweight, and with a belly---at least thats what I see everyday. This is a very smart campaign! Because its a market virtually untapped, they are the first to appeal to the bigger, "nonskinny" woman. Lots of you are taking this way too personally with the "so Im not real because Im skinny" comments. ITS NOT ABOUT U. You've been represented more than enough, so what are you whining about? And besides making Dove a ton of money, its going to improve the self-image of a few not-so-thin chicks. Its not like they're making 50ft billboards of fat and flabby women in their underwear. LOL Its hardly that.

 

[Plastic'sWife]

I think it works for Dove. Any other brand, we would have to see...

 

[eternitygoddess]

This ad is marketing plain and simple. This is what the average woman looks like--slightly overweight, and with a belly---at least thats what I see everyday. This is a very smart campaign! Because its a market virtually untapped, they are the first to appeal to the bigger, "nonskinny" woman. Lots of you are taking this way too personally with the "so Im not real because Im skinny" comments. ITS NOT ABOUT U. You've been represented more than enough, so what are you whining about? And besides making Dove a ton of money, its going to improve the self-image of a few not-so-thin chicks. Its not like they're making 50ft billboards of fat and flabby women in their underwear. LOL Its hardly that.

HEAR HEAR HEAR!!!

 

[ibimus]

Love love love these ads. I'm so glad to see something different in magazines.

 

[|PerfectTonight|]

This ad is marketing plain and simple. This is what the average woman looks like--slightly overweight, and with a belly---at least thats what I see everyday. This is a very smart campaign! Because its a market virtually untapped, they are the first to appeal to the bigger, "nonskinny" woman. Lots of you are taking this way too personally with the "so Im not real because Im skinny" comments. ITS NOT ABOUT U. You've been represented more than enough, so what are you whining about? And besides making Dove a ton of money, its going to improve the self-image of a few not-so-thin chicks. Its not like they're making 50ft billboards of fat and flabby women in their underwear. LOL Its hardly that.

Totally agree! Skinny women usually don't identify with the average woman who's slightly overweight. Dove has a particular target group and this communication method works amazingly for them. Great job!

 

[*mette-marit*]

This certainly doesn't make me think well of Dove- I really hope these campaigns aren't shown in Australia. It is not what I want to see in advertising and I can't imagine why anyone else would either. has this campaign made them money in the states?

 

[Jadee]

I agree with you DP_womanand with Plastic'sWife as well. It's good marketing. I think Garnier latest campaign delves in the same tactics no ? What with the 'Take care of yourself' thing and the focus on the consumer happiness ('[SIZE=-1]For Garnier, the aim of beauty is happiness and feeling at ease with others.) The Garnier ads are prettier than the Dove's one though. Dove and Garnier want to talk directly to their consumers. They tell them : this product will make you feel better in your own skin and not this product is a miracle . It'll make you look like the airbrushed perfect girl in the ad.
It's clever because it makes the ad personal. People here focus on the weight thing but I've seen ads with old/freckled/ginger people/ people from minority too. [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]People feeling left out of the traditional campaigns.[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]
They target a large bracket.

And yes Dove is after people's money but I don't see how it's important. All the other brands are after people's money too.

This marketing approach doesn't bother me. I don't understand the reaction this campaign provokes in some of the posters.[/SIZE][SIZE=-1] I can't relate to any of the Dove girl but so what I don't feel threatened by this campaign. I actually enjoy the diversity.

Maybe people are scared that their models will lose their campaigns ? I don't think it'll happen. The public don't really care about models anyway. We do here at TFS but the general public don't relate to them. I'll even venture to say that the public often think models are ugly. Something tells me that not employing models hasn't damage Dove image one bit.

Two Garnier ads (garnier.com)

[/SIZE][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][SIZE=-1]




[/SIZE]

 

[Luxx]

I just don't know how to take this campaign. I'm an "average woman" and yet I don't love this. I find it semi exploitive even. I think the whole "love yourself" message is good but when its taken, twisted and then used to sell products I dont know if I can support that. Ultimately Dove is still in the business of beauty and are all about turning a profit. I don't think the Unilever Corporation gives a damn how I or anyone else feels about themselves quite frankly. This whole "real beauty" thing is just a marketing tool to them. If anything I think it plays on insecrities women have just as much as any other advert.

I'm sorry, I just can't get behind this campaign and I'm very pro seeing more body types in advertising / mass media / fashion/ etc.

 

[eternitygoddess]

Why the hell is everyone so cynical here?

Maybe we should just appreciate the ad for trying to take the focus off of skinny instead of slamming it for being a money-making strategy.

 

[chanelnumber5]

Hummm so because I was born with a fast metabolism so am very thin naturally im not real...oh sorry i forgot i was made of plastic

 

[AD073018]

Hummm so because I was born with a fast metabolism so am very thin naturally im not real...oh sorry i forgot i was made of plastic

uh oh... i'm not anticipating a good reaction... i agree with you completely but no one's going to listen, trust me...

 

[Luxx]

Why the hell is everyone so cynical here?

Maybe we should just appreciate the ad for trying to take the focus off of skinny instead of slamming it for being a money-making strategy.

I think advertising has to be viewed in a slightly cynical light though. Were this a photo essay or a non-Dove short film I think the reaction would be different but it is an ad and ultimately the goal of any ad no matter what the message is to sell products. I don't think the problem is fat or skinny or anything in between I think the problem is people taking insecurities and using them to sell products. Ads are designed to play on our emotions so I think its important to view them critically and to question them. There are consquences to saying that one type of beauty is "real" and another isn't regardless of what that standard of beauty is.

That said I do want representations of difference in advertising. I want to see a woman who isn't 20 or built like a model or traditionally attractive staring back at me from a billboard. But I also want it to be something that isn't paraded out as an oddity. Something that isn't designed to breed controversy. I think this Dove campaign is in part designed to "shock" the viewer. We as a society are used to seeing one type of beauty especially in this sort of advertising and when were presented with an alternate image it can seem like an anomaly. This campaign launched with a fair amount of media attention; articles were written, stories on the news and it was blogged into infinity. Not because the lotions and soaps are so exciting but because the image presented was designed to provoke a reaction. The sight of a non-amazonian woman in knickers doesn't shock me personally but there was an uproar of positive and negative feedback about the ads. They stood out amidst the sea of typical advertising and good for Dove as they got loads of attention and no doubt sold loads of those lotions and soaps.

What I am waiting for is the day when seeing a woman who is different in an ad wont be something that garners an Op-Ed write up. It won't be something that will jolt people and start a debate on fat vs. skinny. It will just be another thing that happens and we'll accept the woman as beautiful regardless of whether she's shaped like Kate Moss or Kate Dillon. The Dove ads don't bother me because of the woman pictured, on the contrary they all look cute and like they're having a blast, they bother me because something that should be so normal and every day is treated as such a big deal and is bandied about as "real beauty". Last time I checked we are all real women, we are all imperfect, we've all got fat bits and skinny bits and things about ourselves that we dislike. We should be able to look at people and identify with them as human beings not merely as body types. That idea shouldn't be so rare and unheard of that at ad executives can come along and use it against us.

Sorry I'm getting off point, my inner media studies major is rearing its head, I just feel something negative at the core of these adverts. It reminds me of Benneton in that way ; they're taking a larger societal issue and using the controversy surrounding it to raise brand awareness. I'm glad that it provokes dialogue though, I think its healthy to talk about these things from both sides.

 

[AD073018]

^Luxx... incredible post!

 

[kateelle]

I don't think these ads are about how Dove wants to represent the "beauty of real women", its Dove for christ sake! They sell bar soap, not makeup or clothing. Where is the beauty in it all? That using Dove will make you beautiful? ha, I honestly don't see how the beauty marketing tactic relate at all to their product.