Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty is a campaign that helps raise money to help young girls to older women to build their self-esteem. The media presents beauty in general and has their description of what beauty is (usually extremely skinny, tall, “beautiful”) but not everyone fits that image, we all have flaws and imperfections. Dove’s Campaign lets us know that it is okay to love ourselves, and that we have true beauty. With the help of imagery and video they are able to capture how self-esteem issues are affecting girls, whether it is in a good way or bad; the purpose of the campaign is to show both sides of the affects and ways to make it better for girls all over the world.
Dove is raising this campaign for girls all over the world. As soon as you enter into their website you can choose your country and the language that is usually spoken there will be presented on the website. The other countries have different web pages once you enter onto their website. For instance in United States the first webpage has the Wall of Beauty, where you can post a picture and leave a comment of what you know beauty is and in Austria it has a video of “Evolution”, showing how we change beauty through Photoshop, and that our perception of beauty is distorted. Although Dove is advertising in different countries, they use different tactics of imagery and video to capture their audience in that area.
While the “Evolution” video is on the front page for Austria, it is also available on all the country’s web pages. This video shows what we don’t see. The actual model and what they transform her into. This video is a representative of Dove’s Campaign because it shows that even the models don’t look like what they perceive to be on a billboard, magazine, or Internet; Dove wants us to have real beauty not something that media created.
In the evolution video, you can see that the women who walked in the photo shoot is a normal lady, no make-up, and natural. As soon as the lights shine on her, you can see her blemishes and the make-up artist quickly covers it with foundation. Her hair is then curled to give it volume and more appeal. She looks great with the new make over. Her pictures are taken, and you would think that it would be enough with her picture, but it isn’t. They Photoshop her neck and make it longer, her eyes become wider, and her lips more plump. By the end the billboard ends up showing a different women, then the one who walked in for the photo shoot as their model. The video notes that our perception of beauty is distorted; we are given a false view of beauty. We are being lied to; beauty isn’t what it seems to be now. Beauty is whatever the editor wants it to be; it’s not original anymore.
The Campaign for Beauty is so essential here in the United States to little girls and adults because they go day to day, looking at what the media presents them such as magazines, billboards, and they have an 'image' of what beauty should be, and it makes girls feel pressured to look and be a certain way. According to Dove’s Beauty Campaign, 75% of teenage girls felt 'depressed, guilty and shameful' after spending just three minutes leafing through a fashion magazine (quoted in respectrx.com). This shows how imagery can affect a reader in a personal level; it makes at least ¾ of the teenage girls upset with themselves.
The ironic
part to this campaign is that in many cases it shows the negative side of girl’s self-esteem. This picture shows a girl looking very upset, her eyes staring straight at you, and her lips pressed together; you can also see that in the background she has a very bright color, as if the girl who is upset usually is content. Stating how she wishes she were blonde, when she has brown hair. By the end of her experience she is able to accept her natural beauty, this picture originally comes from a video Dove made, and it shows that she is content with her natural hair color. 
The campaign really appeals to Pathos (appealing to the readers emotions), it has many life changing experiences, and the give the girls chance to feel better about themselves. Girls have the opportunity to write about their feelings about what the think beauty is and what they think about themselves on Doves Real Beauty Wall. For example, Candace from New Jersey says, “ I know my smile is beautiful.” The ironic part about Candace’s smile is that she has braces, which is something people are usually uncomfortable with when they smile. With a high self-esteem, Candace is able to feel confident about her smile. Some girls even post short videos of them stating what beauty is. Angelica posted a video saying, “The way I view myself now, is as a beautiful person no matter what.” The campaign was able to help these girls, and build their self-esteem and they are able to post their newfound confidence. The Real Beauty Wall, is basically a blog for these young women, and helps them feel better by leaving a little testimony of themselves of real beauty; the wall usually has twelve spaces for twelve girls.
The campaign’s main target audience is mostly younger girls and women. The campaign really stresses how much of an affect of low self-esteem can affect a girls, it states in the website that, “75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking, or drinking when feeling badly about themselves.” Girls with low self-esteem usually tend to resort to bad habits and behavior, and Dove wants the audience to know this, so they can contribute to helping these young women, because “62% of all girls feel insecure or not sure of themselves.” These statistics can be found on the gallery section of Campaign for Real Beauty, under DOVE global studies, it’s called Real Girls, Real Pressure. They put the statistics up so you can get involved in a community near you.
Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty helps in every little way that they can to help someone’s self-esteem rise and you can tell through the tone of their videos and messages. The campaign’s website has tips and helpful advice to help you out in your self-esteem issues. Including advice for mothers to give to their daughters. Workshops that help you improve your self-esteem, online activities, and ways to help a girl in need. Doves campaign really sets the caring tone through this way; Dove mostly focuses on helping the girls out, and promoting their products comes along with it, because the campaign is in the same website as their products. Dove does a good job of separating the two, but also keeps the products available for the viewer.
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is something that makes us remember that at one point in our lives we had a low self-esteem, and that we were insecure. I remember feeling the same way as these young women do in my adolescent years. It was an awkward phase for me, because I was entering into puberty. I started to have low self-esteem issues because I would always compare myself to other girls. Now, I’ve learned to accept myself for who I am, and this is why I like Dove’s Campaign, because it helps us accept ourselves for who we are.
This campaign is making a difference to young girl’s and women lives and perspective on beauty. It helps them realize what true beauty is and helps them accept their own. It helps them care less about the media and focus on what true beauty is and that is our own real beauty. This campaign will motivate you and help you feel better about yourself. The campaign is a very supporting campaign, and very positive. For us, women, we have issues with self-esteem, and Dove really encourages us to raise our self-esteem and others as well because it will make a difference in our lives.
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