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Is Beauty Always in the Eye of the Beholder?

May 3, 2013Written by RetailWire Staff

It's an extended-length ad, selling something, although the products are only mentioned at the end. But its message is clear — "women are too often their own worst critics," as The Guardian puts it.

Dove's latest effort in its Real Beauty campaign, Real Beauty Sketches, is an online-only film depicting drawings made by a forensic artist. Each participant, from behind a screen, describes herself while he draws. A stranger, also behind a screen, then describes the participant and another sketch is produced. Shown side-by-side, the drawings differ widely; the strangers' instructions all portray a more attractive woman.

Within a week, a three-minute version had been viewed more than 26 million times on Dove's YouTube channel; a seven-minute version was up to 1.7 million views, according to Businessweek.

Dove's website showed all the participating women not seen in the ad, with photos alongside the two sketches that were made for each.

Opinions vary widely, from being seen as a moving tearjerker to a cynical variation on women's negative perceptions of their appearance. Dove's Facebook page featured predominantly favorable comments, but one suggested Dove "stop pseudo-psychoanalyzing us in an attempt to make more profits."

Author Jean Kilbourne, who has studied images of women in the media and pop culture for decades, told The Guardian, "We always lack something, and advertisers can't wait to inform us that one product will make all the difference."

Speaking to The New York Times, Fernando Machado, Dove Skin's global brand vice president, maintains the mission is "to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety."

Among the fans, journalist Lianna Brinded in The Independent called it a "game changer" for advertising. She wrote, "It doesn't say that being beautiful is an important asset to have, it is saying being happy in yourself and not worrying about conforming to an idealized beauty is the key to enjoying your life."

The Guardian's Heather Long wrote, "We know that marketing is false. Yet we are too quick to blame our own shortcomings, as if we were the only ones out there who don't fit the superwoman, supermodel mold. ... Dove put a crack in that veneer."

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