The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty - Pearson

Chapter 2 Sustainable marketing: marketing ethics and social responsibility‘We want to raise awareness of self-esteem being a real issue [for a young girl],’says Harousseau. ‘Every single one of us can get engaged and can change the way weinteract with her to increase self-esteem.’ As the campaign has taken off, so havesales of Dove products. And calls to Unilever’s consumer call centre have surged, ashas traffic to the campaignforrealbeauty.com website. Women, girls and even menpraise Dove for addressing a too-long-ignored social issue.Debora Boyda, managing partner at Ogilvy & Mather, the ad agency that createdthe campaign, received a phone call from an emotional father. His teenage daughterhad just recovered from a four-year battle with anorexia. The father thanked her andstressed how important he thought the ad was. ‘That to me was the high point of whatthe ad achieved,’ says Boyda.In addition to the positive reactions, however, the Dove Campaign for Real Beautyhas also received criticism. Critics argue that the ‘real women’ in the Dove ads arestill head turners, with smooth skin, straight teeth and no cellulite. Although theseunretouched beauties are more realistic than supermodels, they still represent a loftystandard of beauty. Fans of the campaign counter that, compared with typical adindustryportrayals, the Dove women represent an image of beauty that is healthy,constructive and much closer to reality. For example, after seeing a Dove billboard,one young woman gushed, ‘Most girls don’t have that (supermodel) type of body andthey know they won’t get to that. But seeing this [Dove ad] they say, “I can do that.”’Other critics claim that the campaign is hypocritical, celebrating less-than-perfectbodies while at the same time selling products designed to restore them, such asfirming lotions.‘Any change in the culture of advertising that allows for a broader definition ofbeauty and encourages women to be more accepting and comfortable with theirnatural appearance is a step in the right direction,’ says noted psychologist andauthor Mary Pipher. ‘But embedded within this is a contradiction. They are stillsaying you have to use this product to be beautiful.’ Still, she concedes, ‘It’s betterthan what we’ve had in the past.’Yvonne, a woman featured in one of the Dove ads, takes issue with the criticism.‘That’s like saying, why be into fashion? Women are women. We love to be the best wecan be. It’s not contradictory; it’s just taking care of yourself.’ Ad executive Boyda alsodefends Unilever’s intentions: ‘We are telling [women] we want them to take care ofthemselves, take care of their beauty,’ she says. ‘That’s very different from sendingthem the message to look like something they’re not.’Still others criticise Unilever for capitalising on women’s low self-esteem just tomake a buck. But the company responds that it has created a lot more than just a…2.1▼75