The Dove Code, by the Brazilian agency Soko, aims to challenge how women are being portrayed by Gen AI tools.
The personal care brand, which has championed portraying “real women” of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds in its advertising, has committed to never using Gen AI technology in its portrayal of women.
In a new campaign, ‘The Dove Code’, it wants to redefine what beauty looks like in the digital age, and follows a global report. The Real State of Beauty, that found a third of women feel pressure to alter their appearance because of what they see online, even when they know it’s fake or AI generated.
The creative shows what Gen AI tech produces when using prompts such as “a gorgeous woman” or “perfect woman”, and how this contrasts results when adding “according to Dove Real Beauty” to the end of prompts.
“The prevailing trend within AI-generated imagery showcases a homogenised beauty standard—mainly featuring blonde hair and depicting white, tanned skin—mirroring societal biases. When Soko tested prompts for women’s imagery adding ‘according to Dove real beauty campaign’ we realised the results were dramatically more diverse, inclusive and real,” Soko partner and co-CEO Brisa Vicente said.
“That’s a code Dove embedded on AI forever because of 20 years of campaigns for real real beauty. Dove changes AI, because the brand has been actually changing beauty.”
The film was produced by Saigon and directed by Juliana Curi in partnership with The Mill, Diprod, Big Sync Music and HEFTY. Media.Monks developed so-called prompt guidelines that people can use to make images representative of Real Beauty when using generative AI.
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty has consistently won silverware at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and redefined how women are portrayed in advertising.
Since launching Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove’s global sales have increased form US$3 billion to US$6.5 billion.
