ANALYSES OF THE DOVE REALITY CAMPAIGN

Introduction:
“There exist, in human beings the drive to assess their opinions and to know more about their
abilities and when they are incapable of evaluating their opinions and abilities, they tend to
compare themselves with others. People are driven to acquire a precise assessment of themselves
by discerning their abilities and opinions in comparison with individuals around them…”

“…as in the case of a person who evaluates his writing ability by comparing himself with a more
experienced writer. How close this person gets to the experienced writer is the basis of evaluation
of his writing ability… If the actual or physical setting in which someone can compare his opinions
and abilities with is unavailable, this person then tends to infer a subjective opinion...” (Festinger
1954).

The above extracts is from the work of Leon Festinger in his book published in the year 1954 titled
‘Social Comparison Theory.’ The “Campaign for Real Beauty” under review was produced by
Dove in the year 2004 with the central idea of finding the truth about real beauty. The campaign
set out with the goal of re-shaping believes of women on the truth about real beauty as the media
has increasingly portrayed unrealistic views of women most especially in broadcast channels and
on billboard commercials.

The work of the theorist in the above extracts will be of great help in the proper analyses of the
campaign as the scholar has a lot to say about self-comparison and the various dimensions of self-
esteem. As he argues that “…the inaccurate appraisal of one’s ability can be punishing…”

Brief Overview of the campaign

The background of the idea behind this campaign was actually that Dove wanted to challenge the
conventional way of using beautiful women with an amazing body and no visible flaws by
advertisers for advisements. It has the objectives of really defining what exactly is meant by real
beauty. The campaign which was beamed for just about 6:30 sec. was no doubt loaded with lots
of messages.

In the campaign, women were asked to describe what they look like to a professional artist while
he sketches them without seeing them eyeball to eyeball. A second sketch was done of the same
women by having an acquaintance describe their features. The drawing by the artist was based on
mere description. Towards the end, the women were shown the two sketches side by side and in
each case the self-described sketch was less attractive than the one where they were described by
someone else. The video ended with “You are more beautiful than you think”.

The message at the end of the short video clip was definitely indeed one that was aimed at
encouraging high self-esteem in women and as well as changing their perspectives about beauty.
Women most often unhealthily compare themselves with people they feel are of higher caliber
than themselves, it was meant to point out the fact that women’s unique differences should be
celebrated, rather than ignored, and that physical appearance should be transformed from a source
of anxiety, inferiority complex and low self-esteem to a source of confidence.
Analyses:
As a matter of fact, great kudos should be given to the initiator(s) behind the creation of this
campaign as it has in no small measure gone a very long way is the re-construction of women’s
perception about themselves thereby reducing the damning effect of low self-esteem. Festingner
in one of his works argues that “…a person’s cognition (opinions and believes about one’s self)
about the situation in which he exists and his appraisals of what he is capable of doing (evaluation
of his abilities in relation to others) will together have bearing on his behavior…” hence “…the
holding of incorrect opinions or inaccurate appraisal of one’s ability can be punishing or even fatal
in many situation…”
Moreover, the campaign must be commended greatly as the message was delivered through a
variety of communication means, including TV commercials, magazine spreads, talk shows, and
a worldwide conversation via the Internet which in turn enables it to reach a wide range of
audience. It is such that substantial part of the population get the message leaving what could be
regarded as positive effects on them. Audience were admonished to appreciate whatever may be
their color or complexion and never to see themselves as being inferior in comparison with others
or see themselves as having low productivity compared with other so called ‘highly placed’ in
their vicinity.
As good as the campaign is, it is however not free from criticism as some errors and conflicting
ideas could be noticed upon a close and critical observation of the campaign.
The first criticism I will like to point at in this campaign is the sampling it used. It was obvious
that the campaign only selected its samples using fairly young, white women who could be seen
as traditionally attractive as much of the campaign focuses on them given just few seconds of
attention to other color. A better job would have been done if the campaign had included old
women as well give an equal level of attention to other color as part of the sample in order to have
a better representation of the entire population as the campaign is meant for the generality of the
people (mostly women).
Furthermore, the campaign can be faulted as it failed to include physically challenged people, this
implies that Dove did not see these set of individuals as people to be reckoned with in the society.
They’ve failed to realize that the disabled are part of the ‘very real body type’ and that they must
be well represented as it is a fact that no reasonable campaign carried out in this regard could be
done without giving these set of individual proper representation.
Finally, the conflict that might likely ensue as a result of this campaign as it portrayed the sister
agency (Unilever) as being hypocritical is another criticism. Unilever is mostly known for
espousing messages that is in direct contrast to Dove’s mission. This on the long run may amount
to consumers losing confidence in Unilever and at the same time, consumers may as well have
negative feelings towards Dove’s campaign as it is a fact that Dove has a strong relationship with
Unilever. Consumers may see Dove as one that does not actually meant its campaign in reality
considering the fact that it has a strong tide with a company that is in contrast with its believes and
perception on the necessity for ‘real beauty’.