Monday, 6 May 2013

A 'Campaign for real beauty'


A few weeks ago, a girl approached me at a party and told me she thought I looked beautiful. My immediate reaction to this assertion was a small shrug, and a shy « oh, I don't know about that... » This reaction is apparently very common among women, and shows a lack of self-esteem existing in most of us.
The brand Dove (Unilever), as part of their 'Campaign for Real Beauty’ has approached and used this flaw very intelligently. Launched in the early 2000's, Dove's « The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report. » found that « only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful ». Our perception of beauty has somehow gone astray and is now very much based on the 'perfect sexualised woman' represented in most of the images bombarded at us on a daily basis.
As women, we all have, at some point or another, opened a magazine and thought 'I would like to look like her'. The message that Dove is sending via this campaign is that the women we admire for their 'beauty' in these types of images are not in fact, real. The models used in such advertising represent the epitome of feminine beauty for our times but even that is not enough : they are in turn Photoshopped, retouched and recreated as 'perfect' in order to sell.
One of the first well known adverts linked to the Dove ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ was the short film « Evolution » ( directed by Yael Staav and Tim Piper) made in 2006.
This piece, which won a number of awards, placed an ordinary looking woman in the spotlight, facing the camera. A series of accelerated snapshots follows her being made up, then photographed, and finally being retouched on Photoshop. This gives her stereotypically beautiful features, such as a long neck, wide eyes and pert lips. Then the shot widens and we can see that the final image of her is projected onto a huge billboard. The woman we see in the beginning and the one at the end are totally different. The whole film is a criticism of advertisers' need to indiscriminatly embellish reality at any cost, and without real need, in order to sell. This has a negative effect on all of us. Men are influenced into thinking that women should look like this and women start underestimating themselves and feeling anxious because they don't.
In addition to introducing the Real Beauty campaign in 2004, which tried to give a fresh, more coherent view of feminine beauty, Dove has recently created what they have called the 'Dove movement for self esteem'. During their global study, Dove found that anxiety and lack of self esteem was something that starts from an early age. Films, such as 'Growing up' (2012), were made to illustrate this. In this film a number of young girls are shown doing various activities, such as gymnastics or swimming. But the ad says that « 5 out of 10 girls stop doing everyday activities because they feel bad about how they look » . It then goes on to tell us about the new educational programs and activities Dove has created in order to give back that 'self esteem' to girls and women alike. It is about inspiring women to feel proud of their own bodies and differences and push them to believe that they can do whatever they want to do. They pride themselves in saying that the programme has now reached more than 7 milion girls around the world. In 'Onslaught', directed by Tim Piper (2007) they advise women in general to « talk to [their] own daughters before the beauty industry does » The important message they want to get across, especially in this particular short film, is that the representations of women in media such as magazines, adverts, films etc, are most of the time unrealistic and idealised and that this can become toxic for young eyes.
Another of the programme's related films, that came out this year, was called 'Real beauty sketches'. This film illustrates the surprising difference between how women view themselves and how others see them. Each woman in the piece is asked to describe themselves to a forensic artist who cannot see them, and in turn describe another woman they had talked to a few minutes before. Thus two portraits are made for each woman using two separate descriptions. Surprisingly, the portraits made from the womens' own self-descriptions, were uglier, sadder and definitely not as positive or radiant as the portraits based on the description made by another person. When women described themselves their features tended to be exaggerated, and were generally described in a negative way. When faced with the two portraits, women became emotional, suddenly realising that the image they had of themselves in their minds was in fact distorted by their own lack of confidence. To resume, the ad strongly suggests that we are more beautiful than we think we are.
It should be emphasised however that Dove is using this revolutionary technique to achieve, in the end, what is required of all brands : sell. But at least they are one of the first brands to tackle those kinds of issues, and through their advertising, give a healthier view of beauty. An example of this, is their outspoken choice of models. In 2005, Dove decided to put forward in its adverts « six real women with real bodies and real curves »
For the first time, 'real women' were advertised - with larger bellies, bums, or chins. These were women we could all identify with, without any difficulty !
Later on, the ‘Pro-Age’ campaign would advertise older, 'wrinkled and flawed' women.
Overall then, Dove is presenting women with uplifting, hopeful ideas. The brand seems to have given itself a very good image by pointing out this particular social problem - and trying to solve it. The campaigns and the programmes seem to have provoked a reaction in the media today, and perhaps in women in general. It has opened up a discussion women wanted, as to what beauty is in our modern world. From a feminist point of view, on the surface the brand has innovated and done good things. When you see these little girls in 'Onslaught' or 'Growing up', you want them to believe in themselves and not take any notice of whatever made you doubt yourself when you were their age. Dove has created a sense of community; some place where girls and women can discuss these issues and surpass them. We should learn to be strong together and show the world 'our' differences, and even better, be proud of them. When you look at these adverts, you could think that this is what feminism needs nowadays : strong, confident looking women, of all ages, shapes and origins, saying this is who I am - a person with character and value, whatever my appearance.

However, uplifting as the message can be, a few things have made people tick. One of the most obvious ones, is the fact that the whole 'be proud of your body’, and 'you are beautiful' is immediatly contradicted by the fact that yes, this is an advert, and yes they are trying to sell you products that are supposed to make you look better. So which is it then? Should we not worry, and be confident about our 'real' bodies, or after all, accept that our 'real' bodies still need a little help (from the brand) for us to get that important boost in our self-esteem. It is difficult to have it both ways. When for example, an old smiling woman is advertising anti-wrinkle cream, the initial positive message is immediately cut down by the fact that however wonderful she might be, she still needs that anti-wrinkle cream !
Another more general criticism concerning this campaign is the fact that Unilever has also produced questionable adverts such as 'the Axe effect', where thousands of women in bikinis are running after a man spraying himself with deodorant. The hypocrisy here lies in the promotion of a sexist view of women, which is otherwise criticised by Dove. But this has more to do with keeping a constant moral standard in the main company. The criticism that made the most noise was the scandal that emerged when fashion photo retoucher called Dangin, was quoted in the May 12, 2008 issue of The New Yorker:
The particular adverts he was referring to were the first in the series of the ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’. The photos featuring 'real' women with 'real' curves. The ad in itself is already hypocritical, but what made matters even worse was the complacency with which Dove produced 'Evolution', in which they accused the beauty industry of creating false representations of beauty and where retouching was deeply criticised. To quote the video; « no wonder our perception of beauty is distorted. » The video went viral at the time. It was a huge success and is still considered as one of the best in advertising - it won awards and pushed sales, even without mentioning any products whatsoever. The effect it had on the general public was huge. But once you have made such a statement, and based your whole campaign on something like the real beauty of real women, it makes your whole philosophy sound fake and opportunistic. However, the fact that the fact they were retouched being described as a shock seems to go a little far. Of course it is disappointing, but the women in the photos have obviously been airbrushed. None of them have at least a little bit of cellulite or uneven skin tones. They all look radiant, pretty and in great health. And do be honest, without even talking about the photoshopping, they didn't really take that many risks concerning the models. They do have more curves and represent a type of woman that is definitely more in the norm, but where are the really skinny ones, where are the 'fat' ones? It all comes down to the obvious; these adverts were made to sell, and even while criticising essentially themselves, advertisers are not yet ready to give up and start advertising 'ugly' or 'imperfect' people. The women in the ad are in effect a little larger than usual, but the bottom line for Dove, is to make us believe that even with more weight on than the usual top models, we can look, in our own way, as perfect (with a little help) as them.
In her article « Dove's 'real beauty sketches' ad deserves some praise' » (The Guardian), Heather Long says that ‘ If we aren't getting told our physical appearance is lacking by the media and advertising, we're getting a lecture from some high-profile figure or another about how we aren't living up to our career potential or finding that elusive "balance" in our life. We always lack something, and advertisers can't wait to inform us that one product will make all the difference.‘
So putting all the criticism about Dove aside, (the hypocrisy etc) overall it has been a nice, refreshing change to see women in advertising who are not based on stereotypes. No women represented as sex objects, or mindless housewives - just women that we can easily identify with for once. And recently there has been evidence that maybe this campaign is actually having a positive effect on how the fashion and beauty industry work. In her April 2013 article in 'The Australian Women's Weekly', Liz Burke talks about Sarah Willcocks, the editor of the fashion blog Style Melbourne, having to « smooth out one model's shoulder bones for fear of "glamourising" her scarily skinny frame» on images of the latest Australian fashion week. The models apparently looked very tired and unhealthy. She also says that the reason why « thin is in » is because the designers want it - ironically, thin fashion models are chosen because designers believe that womanly features and curves would distract from the clothes. « Medical experts have called for mandatory health checks for models amid revelations that designers are sending women with waists the size of seven-year-old girls down the catwalk, and of disorientated models collapsing on the job. » she continues to write. Clearly this has to change but if modelling agencies are starting to use Photoshop to fatten up the images of their models rather than thin them down, maybe this is an indication that we are, at last, on the right track. If so, Dove has definitely played a part in this.
Our society needs to have more morally healthy images, and maybe Dove has helped to open the door to new ways of advertising, more inclined to respect both the models and the viewers. But, even though we would like to think that as modern women we have the maturity, the strength and choice to ignore the negative imagery we are bombarded with every day, it is not always as simple as that. If it was, the whole media of advertising would just fall appart. Obviously, some of the images end up influencing us whether we like it or not. It is something that needs to be discussed, fought against, and Dove is a precursor, in that it has at least helped in creating a new way of representing women which doesn't involve all the usual stereotypes to be able to sell. And if what they say on their site is true , and if the educational programs they have created have indeed helped all of these little girls to feel more confident, and to not let themselves down just for a question of appearance, then who knows? Maybe Dove's ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ will one day be considered as a great milestone in feminist advertising.



 


References :

Dove (2013) About the Dove Self-Esteem Fund.[Online] Available at :



J.L.Pozner (2005) 'Dove's "Real Beauty" Backlash' Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, issue 30 (Fall ) [Online] Available at : http://www.wimnonline.org/articles/dovebacklash.html

B. Helm. (2008) 'Surprise! Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" ads actually kind of fake'. Bloomberg Businessweek, 7 May. [Online] Available at :
(Accessed : 5 May 2013)


J. Neff. (2008) 'Dove's 'Real Beauty' Pics Could Be Big Phonies' AdvertisingAge, 7 May. [Online] Available at : http://adage.com/article/news/dove-s-real-beauty-pics-big-phonies/126914/
(Accessed : 5 May 2013)

L. Burke. (2013) 'Skinny scandal: Photoshop used to fatten fashion week models' The Australian's Women Weekly, 11 April. [Online] Available at :

Videos:

Tim Piper (2006) Dove Evolution. Available at :
(Accessed : 5 May 2013)


Bornsquishy (2008) Dove - Onslaught. Available at :
(Accessed : 5 May 2013)


doveUKI (2012) Dove Self-Esteem Programme - 'Growing up' TV advert. Available at :
(Accessed : 5 May 2013)



Geraldine BUCKLAND 1114644
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