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With the right research, look, and design an advertisement has the capabilities to change the way people think of a certain product. Take Dove for example. Prior to 2004, this international mega brand used advertising tactics much like many beauty brands in the industry were using- skinny models, sexual innuendos, and trendy images. But their products Werner]t getting the success they hoped for. Driven by a declining market share and decreased sales, Dove decided to take a daring new move and use curvier women in their ads. They called their new campaign the “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty’.
The campaign, which targeted women of all shapes and sizes, sought to reverse the fabricated idea that all women should be a size 2 with voluptuous lips, perfect hair, and toned skin. Ultimately, Dove hoped that the campaign would change the way their target audience related to their products. They never could have imagined the campaign would get so much attention, spark heated debate, and be a leading factor of increased sales and market share. So how exactly did Dove succeed in doing all this? Let’s look at one of Dove’s advertisements and analyze its relationship to the original product.
One billboard sums up the “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty”‘ in a nutshell. The billboard, which advertises Dove’s skin firming lotion, is just one example of Doves newest campaign, which seeks to change the way Doves target audience relates to their products. The billboard is able to put a certain spin on the skin firming product by using a variety of tactics and strategies. One such strategy is hidden in the text of the billboard itself. Advertising is famous for its use of rhetoric language, and the Dove advertisement is an excellent example of using rhetoric to persuade its audience.
The words ћneed and ћrealј evoke a feeling of freshness and help persuade the audience to buy the lotion. According to Gillian Dyer, author of Advertising as Communication (1988, p. 149), the word ћreal is one of the most common adjectives used in advertising. “Words such as ћneed and ћreal[l, not only describe things, but they communicate feelings, associations, and attitudes; they bring ideas to our minds. ” (Dyer 1 988, p. 140). Dyer (1988, p. 1 58) also states that "rhetoric language also carries the implication of extravagance and artifice, not to mention a lack of information.
The lack of information is clear in the Dove billboard. The sentence is abbreviated and simply constructed, which is a common technique among advertisements as to not confuse the target audience with the message. Every element of the Dove campaign has been strategically placed for maximum impact. The color white, which takes up most the space on the billboard, is a sacred and pure color. The color can aid in mental clarity, help evoke purification of thoughts and actions, and enable fresh beginnings (Squid’s).
The color white also has a soothing aspect to it, and helps draw attention to the most important image on the lapboard; the six women. 2 The women are shown wearing only underclothes evoking a feeling of intimacy and self confidence and acceptance. The women seem happy, relaxed, and secure. Every aspect of the Women from their eye-contact, to their size, to their manner are all involved in the coding process of the ad, which helps to create a message of natural and real beauty. According to Dyer, ads generally confirm conventions of the ћideal type.
D However, with Dove showing ordinary women in their ad, a sense of realness and naturalness can be seen (Dyer 1988, p. 99). This is much like what Mike did in heir ads when they introduced the concept of "the ghetto” by stressing its "realness. ” Judith Williamson, author of Decoding Advertisements, states that ads have to have meaning to us. An ad has to connect to the person they are targeting, which in Dove]s case is all women, of every shape, size, and nationality. Simply put, the Dove ad is not selling a product; it is selling the target audience (Williamson 2002, p. 1 2).
But are the women on the billboard shown in a desirable light? Many people probably donuts think so. But Dove chose to show reality and not the conventional beauty model. Their daring campaign went against all the norms of modern advertising, and showed the more truthful and honest side of women today. However, much back lash and criticism evolved over the “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty”‘. In the book, Mythologies, by Roland Farthest, Farthest explains a lot about myth as a seismological system, since he argues myth is a speech (2000, p. 109-1 32). Is the Dove campaign a myth? Farthest would most likely argue yes.
Take the six curvy women in the ad. The realness and honesty of the women masks the actual purpose of the ad, which is to sell a beauty product, which ultimately interdicts the dados message for real and natural beauty. If the women were really happy with their bodies, they wouldn’t need Doves skin-firming lotion (Guardian News). The new tactic for using real, average looking women was just another strategy to appeal to and spin womenјs emotions, so that they would buy the product. Many critics raise the question of what makes these women any more honest than slender models typically shown in ads.
They argue that the six women were still actors, still told to pose a certain way, smile in a certain direction, and pose in a certain manner. As Farthest (2000, p. 126-129) argues, “myth hides nothing and flaunts nothing: it distorts; myth is neither a lie nor a confession: it is an inflexion… And motivation is unavoidable when it comes to myth. ” 3 The Dove billboard can easily be compared to the story of the ‘World of Wrestling’ from Farthest Mythologies. In the story, wrestling is described as a myth for the simple reason that the audience doesn’t care if a wrestling match is rigged, but rather what it is seeing taking place.
They don’t think about reality or truth. In fact, they really donњt think at all; they see (Farthest 000, p. 1 5). This can be applied to the Dove advertisement because the audience is only engaged with what it sees, not with the truth and persuasion of the ad. The target audience doses[let r[let realize that what thinner seeing was all a process to evoke a certain message and get them to think a certain way about their product or have meaning to the audience. And think a certain way they did. Ultimately Dove[l’s daring strategy increased their sales and market share.
Women were able to connect to the ad, which in turn made them buy the product. The campaign led to the Dove Self Esteem Fund, which gave Dove even more media exposure with the making of Youth videos and clips. As one can see, Dove successfully turned around their advertising tactics, which led to increased sales and changed feelings toward Dove products. These products were the same beauty products before and after the new campaign, but successful advertising allowed for people to view the products as something totally different.
Dove Campaign for Real Beauty Case Study The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty (CUFF) began in England in 2004 when Dove]s declined as a result of being lost in a crowded market. Milliner, Dove’s parent company, .NET to Delano, its PR agency, for a solution. Together, they conceived a campaign that focused not on the product, but on a way to make women feel beautiful regardless of their age and size. 1 The following summer, CUFF was brought to the United States and Canada. CURB aimed not only to increase sales of Dove beauty products, but also targeted women of all ages and shapes. According to the CUFF website, “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a global effort that is intended to serve as a starting point for societal change and act as a catalyst for widening the definition and discussion of beauty. The campaign supports the Dove mission: to make women feel more beautiful every day by challenging today’s stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves. 3” 4 In addition to changing womenјs view of their bodies, Dove also aimed to change the beauty market.
In an industry where the standard of beauty is often a size two blonde supermodel, Dove distinguished itself by using models that ranged from size six to fourteen. CAR?? abandoned the conventional cynical method of portraying “perfect” women as beauty role models. Research: Dove commissioned The Real Truth About Beauty study as way to explore what beauty means to women today. Strategy, an applied research firm, managed the study in conjunction with Dry. Nancy Outcome and Massachusetts General Hospital- Harvard University, and with consultation of Dry.
Susie Arroba of the London School of Economics. Between February 27, 2004 and March 26, 2004, the global study collected data from 3,200 women, aged 18 to 64. Interviews were conducted across ten countries: the U. S. , Canada, Great Britain, Italy, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina and Japan. The study evolved Out of a desire to talk to women round the world about female beauty. According to the study, “Dove knows that the relationship women have with beauty is complex: it can be powerful and inspiring, but elusive and frustrating as well. We sponsored this study in order to probe more deeply into this intricate relationship. Dove wanted to understand how women define beauty; how satisfied they are with their beauty; how they feel about female beauty’s portrayal in society; and, how beauty affects their well-being. ” This was the first comprehensive study of its kind. The following statistics are a sampling of results from the study: Only 2% of these women describe themselves as “beautiful” About 3/4 of them rate their beauty as “average” Almost 1/2 of them think their weight is “too high” The previous findings are particularly the case in the US. 60%), Great Britain (57%) and Canada (54%). Almost half of all women (48%) strongly agreed (8, 9, or 10 on a ID-point scale) with the statement that: “When feel less beautiful, I feel worse about myself in general. ” 5 Just 13% of all women say they are very satisfied with their beauty, 12% with their physical attractiveness, 17% with their facial attractiveness and 13% with their body weight and shape. The study revealed that women see beauty and physical attractiveness as increasingly socially mandated and rewarded.
Almost two-thirds strongly agreed that: “Women today are expected to be more physically attractive than their motherњs generation was” (63%); and, “Society expects women to enhance their physical attractiveness” (60%). Larry Coffer, the senior vice president of consumer brands at Delano, maintained that the research was vital to the campaign: ‘Without having a foundation in the global research study, which showed that the image of beauty was unattainable, we would[let h[let have had the credibility in creating the trials, in pitching stories and being able to answer some of the folks that dinњt agree with the campaign. After the initial study, Dove commissioned two more studies, one in 2005 and one in 2006. The additional information furthered Doves research about women CSS perceptions of beauty across several cultures. The later studies revealed the following data: 1. 90% of all women 15-64 worldwide want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance (with body weight ranking the highest). 2. 67% of all women 15 to 64 withdraw from life-engaging activities due to feeling badly about their kooks (among them things like giving an opinion, going to school, going to the doctor). . 61% of all women and 69% of girls (15 to 1 7) feel that their mother has had a positive influence on their feelings about themselves and their beauty. 4. 91% feel the media and advertising need to do a better job of representing realistic images of women over 50. 5. 97% believe society is less accepting of appearance considerations for women over 50 compared to their younger counterparts, especially when focused on the body. 6 6. Nearly of women believe that if magazines were reflective of a population, a person would likely believe women over 50 do not exist. . 87% of women believe they are too young to be old. Campaign Details – Campaign for Real Beauty Target Audience: All women, all ages and of all sizes. Objectives: 1 . Increase sales of Dove beauty products and new product lines 2. Create dialogue, debate, and discussion about the true meaning of beauty 3. Attract national TV and print media coverage 4. Gain local press attention in the hometowns of models featured throughout the campaign 5. Drive users to the CUFF Web sites to share their thoughts and opinions about the aiming and beauty stereotypes 6.
Create a call to action for consumers to join the movement through website pledge that activate a donation by Dove for self-esteem awareness programs TACTICS: Advertising: Dove launched a global advertising campaign in October 2004 questioning whether "model” attributes, such as youth, slimness, and symmetrical features, are required for beauty – or if they are completely irrelevant to it. 8 The ads each presented an image of a woman whose appearance differed from the stereotypical physical ideal, and asked the reader/viewer to judge the woman’s looks by checking off a box. "Wrinkled?
Wonderful? ‘ featured Irene Sinclair, 95, of London, England with a wrinkled face and asked: ‘Will society ever accept old can be beautiful? ” "Gray? Gorgeous? ” featured Merlin Glazer, 45, of London, England with a natural mane of gray hair and asks: "Why aren’t women glad to be gray? ” "Oversized? Outstanding? ” featured Tablas Roman, 34, of New York, NY a plus-size woman and asked: "Does true beauty only squeeze into a Size 7 "Half empty? Half full? ” featured Esther Power, 35, of London, England with small breasts and asked: "Does sexiness depend on how full your cups are? ” "Flawed? Flawless? Featured Lea Sheehan, 22, of London, England with freckles and asked: "Does beauty mean looking like everyone else? ” Each ad directed readers/viewers to whom. Counterrevolutionary. Com where they could cast their votes. TV Commercials: Dove aired many commercials to reach the target audience Website: Women can visit www. Counterrevolutionary. Com and cast their votes on the questions raised in the ad campaign. The website also allows women to partake in ongoing dialogue about beauty by posting to discussion boards, downloading several research studies about beauty, and hearing and reading what women round the world have to say.
Billboards: Dove placed mobile billboards in major cities. Each billboard challenged women’s notions of beauty by encouraging them to cast their votes online. A featured interactive billboards, located in New Work’s Times Square highlighted and kept a running tally of the votes submitted for the "Wrinkled? Wonderful? ” ad. Panel discussions: The Campaign for Real Beauty launched in New York City on September 29 with a panel discussion about beauty. The kick-off was co-hosted by American Women in Radio and Television, and featured Dry. Nancy Outcome of Harvard university; Mindy Herman, former CEO, E!
Entertainment Television; And Bernstein, Vice President, Special Projects, Oxygen Media and other media and beauty leaders Dove furthered the panel discussions on a grassroots level by partnering with the Hoodlum Institute for Ethical Leadership, a not- for-profit educational organization that provides ethical 8 leadership training and professional development for women, for two special weekend workshops held in Atlanta (October 8-10) and Chicago (November 12-14). Interviews: Interviews with major television shows such as: Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Early Show, The Ellen Designers
Show, The View and Opera. The Dove Self-Esteem Fund: Dove established the Dove Self-Esteem F-undo to raise awareness among young girls of the link between beauty and body-related self-esteem. Dove funds programs that raise self-esteem in girls and young women. In the US, the Dove Self-Esteem Fund works through the Milliner Foundation to sponsor uniquely ME! , a partnership program with Girl Scouts of the USA Uniquely ME! Helps girls ages 8-14 build their self-confidence through activities and programs. The Fund also supports Bodywork, an educational program for schools in the
United Kingdom and Canada. Programs: Establishment of the Program for Aesthetics and Well-Being at Harvard University, through a grant from Dove, which will continue to study the way we view women in the media and culture and the effect that this has on women’s well-being. Creation of a global touring photography exhibit, Beyond Compare, Women Photographers on Beauty, showcasing diverse images of female beauty from 67 female photographers, and showing beauty beyond stereotypes. IN THE NEWS: Press Coverage After CUFF was launched, a slew of press was devoted to the ads in the campaign.
The campaign was featured and debated across both print and broadcast media. CUFF was featured on national morning shows such as Good Morning America, The Early Show, and The Today 9 Show. Moreover, CUFF was featured on popular talk shows such as The Ellen Designers Show, The View, Opera and The Tara Banks Show. Overwhelmingly, the response of the media applauded the campaign, however CUFF was also criticized. In national and local newspapers and journals, CUFF was written about, debated and the press received responses from the public in the form of letters, online voting, and message boards.
Of he 22 articles we found over a time period of 4 years (2004-2007), 17 articles covered CUFF positively, praising the campaign. Only five articles criticized the campaign. PRAISE FOR THE CAMPAIGN FOR REAL BEAUTY 1. In the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, John Convoy applauded CUFF, saying "Thank you Dove. No, this isn’t an pop-De piece from a ћreal customers discussing the benefits of the latest skincare line. I don’t even use Dove products. But I am a fan. This is something far more serious, and real. This is about Dove’s Campaign for Beauty. When did courageousness become the equivalent to chubby or fat?
Convoy went on to explain how body consciousness has become part of everyday life for men in addition to women. Moreover, he commented on how Hollywood starlets have evolved from voluptuous, like Marilyn Monroe, to the waifs of today, like Miasma Barton or Nicole Ritchie. 2. Barbara Lippies critiqued Dove’s most recent effort for Cream Oil Body Wash in a February 26, 2007 article. "Altogether, I give it three-and-a-half loafs out of five. I guess it’s a testament to how powerful the campaign has been in relaying its message so far. ” Lippies was featured on The Early Show, talking about the ad. .. It goes against what everybody did for 50 years, which is make you anxious about how you look and, you know, make you think you need to be better. This is saying ћYouњre good enough. C] the article “Ahead of the Curve” by Tania White of the Baltimore Sun, White credits CUFF with starting a trend of showing average sized women in the media to change beauty perceptions 1 . “Actress Sara Ramirez introduced the winner of a contest to create the newest Dove ad in a commercial during Sunday’s Oscar telecast. On the TV hit Greyer Anatomy, Ramirez portrays Dry.
Calliope “Collie” Tortes, a lull-figured doctor among waifs female interns. The Dove campaign appears to have started a bit of a trend. Other companies have caught on. ” 10 4. Dry. Joyce Brothers weighed in on the Dove campaign with an article in Advertising Age. In the article, Dry. Brothers presents a psychologist’s opinion on the boost that women receive from seeing ads like those featured in CUFF. “Dove helps show that We have Come a long way when we no longer have to try to look exactly like every other woman who has been declared by some fashion magazine or film czar to be the epitome of beauty. ” 5.
USA Today treated CUFF in an article about Dove’s 2006 Superpower ad. Writer Theresa Howard called the ad “inspirational. ” DEBATING ‘REAL BEAUTY’ The article “Why Dove Ads Are So Controversial” by Susann Schroeder for Newsweek, described the controversy surrounding reactions to CUFF and wondered “Are the women in the company’s new ad campaign too big to sell beauty products, or have our minds gotten too small? ” Schroeder peppered the article with quotes from various sources on both sides of the debate. Furthermore, she argued if it was really the size of the models in CUFF ads or he way the ad was photographed. While photographer Ian Rankin may have been going for a refreshing, natural look, the unreduced photos turned out to be the equivalent of full-length passport shots of women in what looks like underwear meant for jogging. One has to ask whether even celebrity beauties like Jennifer Lopez, Beyond?? Knowles, or Kate Winglet would inspire the same harsh critiques under those less-than-flattering conditions. ” The emails that Newsweek received following the article were printed in an online mail call supported CUFF. “Betty from Chattanooga, Teen. Rites: ћlet’s high time someone starts promoting healthy women instead of sticks with imperfections airbrushed out. Women who wear sizes 6 to 12 are NOT fat… 1 20 Christine from SST. Louis writes: ћI just read this article and am surprised that anyone would be hostile to Dove’s campaign. I think it’s about time that companies started embracing the reality of how women in America look. 0” CRITICISMS OF THE CAMPAIGN FOR REAL BEAUTY 1. In the Lansing State Journal, gender columnist Matt Katz questioned why there wasn’t a campaign similar to CUFF intended for men.
Citing that men are increasingly ore self 11 conscious about their looks, Katz maintained that ‘ omen can no longer claim a hold on vanity. ” 2. Bob Garfield of Advertising Age was swayed over time by CUFF. In a July 25, 2005 article Garfield criticized Dove, calling the campaign self-righteous and hypocritical. The models, he said “… Are all still head-turners, with straight white teeth, no visible pores, and not a cell of cellulite… They represent a beauty standard still idealized and, for the overwhelming majority of consumers, still pretty damn unattainable. In the article, Garfield gave the Dove ads a 2. Star rating out of 4. In an October 30, 2006 article, Garfield seemed to have changed his mind. “From the beginning, the ћCampaign for Real Beauty had the makings of something extraordinary, celebrating a concept of beauty far broader than the anorexic, breast- implanted, tricked-up Barbie doll of the cultures fantasies. ” Garfield praised the viral-video released on the internet 13 entitled “Evolution. ” “… They[level latched on to a powerful [level latched on to a powerful idea here and have demonstrated magnificent sensitivity in following it through. In this review of the CUFF, Garfield gave the d 4 stars. RESPONSES TO CRITICISM I . In response to the articles written by Roper and Guerdon, author Wendy McClure responded with a piece called "The Fat Between the Ears” which was also featured in the Chicago-Sun Times. McClure blasted her male counterparts calling the criticism heaped on the CPRM models as "crude. ” McClure praised CURB as "an extremely hallucinated promotion for soap and cosmetic products; an effort to challenge unrealistic media images; a controversy. She also warned that we, as a society, need to pay attention to the negative responses to campaign "as rude as they sound, and as much as we would like to brush them off as ћpart of the controversy]Because they’re not just dumb. These]re unreasonable. And why should we have to accept them as typical? ” McClure went on to describe how ads in Manhattan and in the UK had been vandalized with spray paint or stickers reading “Fat isn’t Glamorous” and “Who ate all the pies? And urged readers to avoid dissecting the CUFF models as well as other women portrayed in the media. McClure ended by reminding women that they need not base themselves on the view of men, he writes, “And this isn’t about whether men’s 12 fantasies are unrealistic or stupid or shallow or shameful. Men are certainly entitled to their preferences. Having preferences is one thing; expecting the world to cater to them is another. Men aren’t obligated to consider every woman beautiful, or for that matter, to make every woman feel good about herself.
But by the same token, nobody owes you a nice view, guys. ” 2. In an interview with MASC.. Com, Debt Boyd, part of the ad team that put together CUFF, dismissed the criticisms, saying ‘”We are telling them we want them to aka care of themselves, take care of their beauty,” she said. “That’s very different from sending them the message to look like something they’re not. ” The article went on to interview women who have been touched by the ad: “In Chicago, woman after woman passing by a huge Dove billboard said they think the company has done just that. ћMost girls don’t have that type of body (of a model) and they know they won’t get to that,CLC said Gabby Hurtled, 22. ћBut seeing this they say, “l can do that. “‘ Boyd said besides women, dads of daughters also have offered praise for the ads. ћThey can imagine a day when heir daughter has to look in the mirror and say, “You know, I have big thighs and I am not beautiful any more. 0” Press Vs.. PR Message In many of the articles written about CUFF, information and statistics on the campaign came directly from Dove, including the Dove Global Study.