MENTARI INTERCULTURAL SCHOOL BINTARO

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

LANGUAGE A: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Standard Level and Higher Level
Class of 2022

Name Klarisa Year and Section 12 – M / E / N

Non-Literary Texts: Advertisements

This is Just to Say

Instructions:

1. Watch the Choose Beautiful ad campaign by Dove found here.

2. Read the opinion pieces from BuzzFeed and The Guardian, found here and here, respectively.
3. Assess your opinion on the issue surrounding the campaign.
4. Based on your assessment, write an open letter addressed EITHER to:
a. Dove if you deem their campaign to be against the true sense of female empowerment;OR
b. the critics of the campaign if you think there was nothing wrong with the advertisement.

In your letter, you should be able to:

● introduce and say something about yourself and why you think your opinion matters;
● acknowledge the good points in their material;
● explain your opposition to their material; and
● end your message on a good note.

NOTE: Make sure to follow the standard layout for a business correspondence.

Begin your letter here.

Klarisa Retno
Mentari School
Jl. Perigi Baru No.7A, Parigi Baru, Kec. Pd. Aren
Tangerang Selatan, Banten

Dear Dove,

I am a 17-year old student from Jakarta, Indonesia and I have recently found interest in your video titled
“Choose Beautiful”. The video shows women having to choose between being ‘average’ and ‘beautiful’. I do
believe that this video has good intentions and it does show how our confidence can impact the decisions we
make, and how those decisions impact society. However, there are also points to counter; I also believe that
making women choose between ‘average’ and ‘beautiful’ is a very general topic that does nothing more than just
make the women in the video feel bad about themselves and provide more evidence for an already proven
statistic.
I do not think that the intention of the video is inherently bad but there are some underlying negative and toxic
implications. The circumstances you made the women choose are very vague and inherently don’t mean
anything because all it is is just a word on a doorway at the end of the day. I should also mention that it is
somewhat odd that Dove, a beauty brand that profits off of people’s insecurities is the one to be making
messages like this. I do sincerely hope that this kind of message reaches out to people in a way that is more
appropriate for the brand or company.

Sincerely,
Klarisa Retno.
MENTARI INTERCULTURAL SCHOOL BINTARO
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
LANGUAGE A: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Standard Level and Higher Level
Class of 2022