Real Beauty?

Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” is the latest addition in their efforts to show what “real beauty” is. The premise of the campaign is that women are too negative about their physical appearance; apparently 96% of us find ourselves less attractive than we actually are. So Dove had women describe their features to a professional sketch artist (who never actually saw the women); this artist then heard descriptions of each woman from a total stranger. The portraits, one from each woman and one from the stranger, were juxtaposed, the result being that the self-described pictures were “less-attractive” than the other. The women emphasized their negative features, demonstrating how critical we are of ourselves.

For many people, this ad is effective because it concerns an actual struggle—women do tend to have low self-esteem about their appearance, mainly due to glamour magazines and ridiculous beauty standards (set by men). Its genius lies in the fact that millions of women (and not just women, anybody who doubts their own self-worth) can relate to the ad, thus humanizing the brand and making it more respected. Women will subconsciously gravitate towards Dove soap when shopping because of their emotional connection to the brand; they’ll remember how empowering the ad was and they’ll feel even better for buying Dove soap, because they are supporting something they believe in: “real beauty.”

Here’s where I have to call bullshit on some of Dove’s campaign. Not as an advertiser, but as a consumer (because from an advertising standpoint, the campaign is genius). First, not only am I being preached about “real beauty” from a company that sells beauty products, but they are basing their ideas about real beauty from what? Physical appearances. What if one of the women who came in for a portrait was, by society’s standards, physically “ugly” (disproportionate features, overweight, etc.)? Why are we still basing beauty on one’s physical appearance when true beauty comes from within? Yes, I understand the point of the ad was to show that women lack confidence about themselves, but does an ad that affirms their physical good looks instead of their personality or character really do any good in the long run? There’s also the fact that only one woman of color was portrayed in the ad. I think diversity is a beautiful thing and I think it’s time we started to challenge our nation’s beauty ideals a little more.