"On Beauty":

A Body of Work of 20 Printed Advertisements from

the Dove Campaign on Real Beauty

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a worldwide marketing campaign that include
advertisements, videos, a website, and different events. The campaign was launched in 2004. We
will study different printed advertisements that have been published in magazines and on posters.
Dove is a personal care brand that has become world famous for their brand making marketing
campaign.

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 Source: https://www.dove.com/us/en/home.html

Discuss: This text is taken from the home page of the Dove Company. What does
this tell you about the company?
Just by the home page alone, I would tend to believe that it tells us that dove goes the
other direction when it comes to its competitors. Instead of finding gorgeous thin
models which are quite unrealistic, they try to find average and diverse looking
models which regular humans can relate to.

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 The ‘Dove Real Beauty Pledge’
Beauty is for everyone. Dove invites all women to realize their personal potential for
beauty by engaging them with products that deliver superior care .
We believe that beauty should be a source of confidence and not anxiety. Dove inspires women to want
to look like the best version of themselves – because looking and feeling your best makes you feel
happier. We have believed in this for 60 years – and today we are recommitting to this with three vows:

1) We always feature real women, never models.

Models reflect a narrow view of beauty. Dove believes that beauty is for everyone and therefore features
real women of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, hair color, type or style.
• Zero models in our campaigns
• Real women introduced by their names
• Our campaigns reflect the population’s diversity

2) We portray women as they are in real life.

We never present the unachievable, manipulated, flawless images of “perfect” beauty which the use of
retouching tools can promote.
• Zero digital distortion of women
• Image approved by the women we feature

3) We help girls build body confidence and self-esteem.

Globally 8 out of 10 girls opt out of key life activities when they don’t feel good about the way they look.
Dove has a mission to ensure the next generation grows up enjoying a positive relationship with the way
they look – helping young people raise their self-esteem and realize their full potential. For over 10
years the Dove Self-Esteem Project has educated over 20 million young people in body confidence and
self-esteem and has become the biggest provider of self-esteem education of its kind. We work with
world renowned body image experts and leading universities to develop evidence based and
academically validated educational tools.
• Educate 20 million more young people around the world on body confidence and self-esteem by 2020.

Source: https://www.dove.com/us/en/stories/about-dove/dove-real-beauty-pledge.html

Discuss:
1. This text is taken from the company’s website and states the direction for
their marketing. How does this pledge affect their brand?

The text reassures the consumer that the brand cares about them, and resolving
issues of not just them, but all people who were in similar situations, because no
matter what gender you are, or how old you are, or how “good” you look,
dealing with insecurities is a big part of being human and dove capitalizes on that
with their pledge.

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 2. Brand activism is a type of activism where business companies aim to take
part in the process of social change. What could be the effect of brand
activism for a company?

Firstly, it would have to be the amount of credibility a brand gets when it aims to
make changes in social norms. This makes it easier for media to endorse the
product and its more difficult for the brand to accumulate bad reputation.
Secondly, not only will their demographic increase due to increase in media
exposure, but they will also see an increase in die hard consumers who will not
only shop from their brand, but they will go out of their way to make sure that
they endorse it. So even if there is a shift in preference the brand will be able to
rely on that group to keep their business active.

3. Do you know of any other examples of brand activism?

Ben and Jerry’s are all about brand activism. They are a ice cream manufacturer
that firstly focuses on the sustainability of their factories, and actively invest
money into greener technology, while also caring about the injustice in the
world, and donating money to charity along with raising awareness trough their
designs and media accounts.

Text 1

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Text 2

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Text 3

Text 4

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Text 5

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Text 6

Text 7

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Text 8

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Text 9

Text 10

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Text 11

Text 12

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 Text 13

Text 14

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Text 15

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Text 16

Text 17

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Text 18

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Text 19

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Text 20

(WallMart flyer)

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Discussion
Study the 20 advertisements and discuss these questions:
1. What do these advertisements have in common and how are they different?
All the advertisements focus on the same theme of expanding the term of beauty and
making the beauty industry less toxic. The ads use diverse models who do not suit the
expected standard for a model. Really pushing the point of uniqueness over “beauty”.
2. What makes this campaign so successful?
This campaign is so successful because it appeals to the majority of their target
demographic, whereas their competitors only show the most beautiful models whose
images have been tweaked in production, which results in an unrealistic body that
barely any women can relate to.
3. In your opinion, can these advertisements make a change?
I believe that these kinds of advertisements can definitely make a change in today’s
world, firstly because it openly addresses a taboo issue in today’s society, making it more
acceptable to speak on it, and therefore slowly solving it. Secondly, when other brands
catch onto what Dove is doing, they will also shift their marketing towards this new trend,
because firms seek to maximize profits, and a bigger pool of consumers will way more
often than not result in more profits and a brand which is easier to manage.
Area of Exploration: Time and Space
1. How important is cultural and historical context to the production and reception of these
advertisements?
The whole point of the Dove campaign and the reason behind is efficiency is that they are
the first big brand that is tackling the issue in this way, creating a sort of shock in the
community, which in return results in a positive outcome. They are doing something which
was previously thought to be dumb, to help tackle a social issue. They are the ones taking
one for the team. And I believe that if these models were common courtesy than the
campaign wouldn’t be that impactful, and its relies on the context, which is that all of the
other firms are spending big money on the most beautiful models, cameramen and
producers in order to have the best possible pictures.
2. How do we approach the texts that are from different cultures than our own?
Firstly, we have to read it multiple times, research the culture that we are working with,
ideally know someone from the culture, if unable to find someone, there is definitely
someone of the internet that has already put up many texts. Maybe read a book from that
culture and time period. All of the above-mentioned statements help open our eyes, and
guide us trough the body of work, helping us know what to look for.
3. Do any of the texts offer insight into another culture?
Yes I would say most of them do, by using diverse models which are usually avoided
because they do not fit the western beauty standard.
4. How can cultural contexts influence how texts are written and received? In some cultures,
advertisements like these, may be considered artistic or beautiful. In others they are taboo.
Discuss how these texts might be received in different cultures you are familiar with.
Be sure not to generalise when speaking about entire countries or parts of the world.
Consider people’s religious affiliations and where they live in relation to rural or urban
areas. International minded learners understand that not everyone will share their view of
the world. Keep this in mind when you discuss these texts.
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 Cultural contexts play a huge role in marketing, and as a big firm you are just not able to
please every single person in the demographic, and this is where firms usually split. They
either choose to appeal to the mass which limits their ability to gain a core following, while
other firms decide to stick to a smaller demographic but please them, creating a small, but
loyal audience.

Concept: Identity
1. Our identity is affected by our self-image. Self-image is the way we imagine ourselves in
terms of appearances and personality. Some people form their self-image by comparing
themselves to people they either know or see in the media. How do these advertisements
use this knowledge in their campaign?

Struggling with your self-image is a key part of being human and everyone is constantly on
a journey of trying to “improve” themselves, and this in totally normal. However, in the
past few decades the rise of social media has really impacted the beauty standard, because
before people only used to compare themselves to the people of their tribe, village, city a
now the pool of people you can compare yourself to is endless. This leads us to the
situation where even people who are quite attractive, and are acknowledged for it,
struggle with their self-esteem because they don’t look perfect, or someone else looks way
better. The advertisements play on this knowledge by showing that this is okay, creating
an calming sensation towards their audience and letting them relax.

2. Find information about how audiences have reacted differently to the advertisements. You
can find useful articles below:
Consumers becoming critical of Dove's 'Real Beauty' ads:
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.2678460
Unilever's Dove Drops NJ Billboard that Refers to the State as an 'Armpit'
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Business/unilevers-dove-drops-nj-armpit-ad/story?
id=22769673
Why Are We Not Seeing More Intelligent Women Portrayed in Ads?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/connect/better-business/intelligent-women-portrayed-
more-in-ads/
Dove ‘Real Beauty’ Campaign Turns 10: How A Brand Tried to Change the Conversation
About Female Beauty
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dove-real-beauty-campaign-turns-10_n_4575940?
guccounter=1

TOK
- As you explore the art as an “area of knowledge” in TOK, you will come across questions such as “what is
beauty?” or “how can we define beautiful?” Are there universally accepted qualities that we look for in a
person? How do you know when someone is beautiful?
- How far does the context of production of the texts influence or inform its meaning?

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For the portfolio: Write an analysis of one of the advertisements.
Advertisement Analysis Template
When you are analysing an advertisement, there are various aspects that you will need to
consider, including context, audience, purpose and formal and stylistic features. You can use
the list below to help you.

Introduction: Present the text to the reader. State the title of the text, the name of the
advertiser and the place of date of publication as accurate as possible. Give an outline
of the main ideas of the advertisments.

Body:
Audience: Who is the anticipated audience? How do you know? How have the
advertisers tried to appeal to the audience?

Purpose: What is the purpose of the advertisement? What does the advertiser
hope to achieve? Is this explicit? Is the purpose of the advertisement to
persuade, entertain or inform? What kind of message is the advert giving about
the product? How does the purpose of the advert affect the form of the
advertisement? How does the purpose of the advert become clear through the
stylistic devices used?

Formal and stylistic features: What persuasive technique is being employed?

What is the effect of these devices.

What relationship exists between the pictorial aspects of the

advertisement and the written text?

How is spatiality used in the advertisement? Is there lots of white (blank)

space, or is the advertisement crowded—full of written and graphic
material?

What angle is the photograph taken from? What is the lighting like? How
is color used? Consider factors such as facial expressions, hairstyles and
hair color, body shape and body language, clothes, age, sex, race,
ethnicity, education, occupation, relationships, and so on.

What does the background of the figures suggest? Where is the action
taking place, and how does the background relate to this action?

What is the plot?What is going on in the advertisement, and what

significance does this action have? Assuming the ad represents part of a
narrative, what can we conclude about what has led to this particular
moment in time?

How is language used in the advertisement? What linguistic devices

provide information or generate some hoped for emotional response?
Does the ad use metaphor? Metonomy? Repetition? Alliteration?
Comparsion and contrast? Sexual innuendo? Definitions?

What typefaces are used, and what messages do these typefaces convey?

Conclusion: Is this an effective advertisement? Why or why not?

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Analysing Persuasive Techniques in Advertising

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