Dove has flipped the script on its ‘Real Beauty’ tagline in a campaign that wants to change how young girls are complimented, but not everyone is convinced.
After telling consumers for decades to embrace their ‘Real Beauty’, and running multiple award-winning campaigns that celebrate ‘real beauty’, Dove believes it is time to rethink how we talk to and praise young girls.
The campaign, by American ad agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, draws on research that found well-intentioned compliments about how young girls look can actually increase body dissatisfaction, and that adults place a greater emphasis on girls’ looks than boys.
“One of the most powerful truths our research has revealed is that low confidence in appearance doesn’t begin in adulthood – it takes root in childhood,” said Marcela Melero, the chief growth officer of Dove Personal Care North America & Dove Masterbrand.
“We’ve identified a simple shift to help young girls understand that they are so much more than how they look: starting this International Day of the Girl, we’re asking people to #ChangeTheCompliment and praise girls for what their bodies can do, as well as how they look.”
Emily Garvey, head of strategy at Zulu Alpha Kilo New York, added: “The provocation here is that what feels like a harmless, positive behaviour is actually the root of our confidence issues as girls and women. The work had to spark a cultural conversation to change how people see what they’ve always accepted.”
Not everyone is a fan of the campaign and messaging. Nick Asbury, a freelance creative writer at Asbury & Asbury, questions whether most women regard physical beauty as important to self-esteem, and whether a brand that has sells beauty products is best placed to champion this issue.
“After 21 years of the Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove now tells ‘society’ to stop going on about beauty,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“Dove, who selectively reported their own ‘research’ by a PR company in 2004, ignoring the finding that only 13 per cent of women saw themselves as less beautiful or physically attractive than others, and ignoring the more important finding that most women didn’t see physical beauty as being that important to self-esteem, ranking behind family, professional success, religion, and other forms of personal fulfilment.
“Dove, whose best-seller is the ‘beauty bar’.”
Asbury’s beef with Dove stems from what he believes has been its brand strategy for 20 years.
“Advertisers reinforce the insecurities they claim to fight, and introduce new insecurities that people didn’t know they were supposed to have,” he wrote on Substack.
He also believes it is hypocritical of brands like Dove to try to tackle insecurities and a lack of self-esteem while funding social media platforms that contribute to these societal issues.
Change the Compliment will run on TV, cinema, social media and out of home in 25 countries, including the US, UK, Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Sweden, South Africa and India.
Launched for International Day of The Girl (11 October), it is part of The Dove Self-Esteem Project, which Dove says has reached 137 million young people across 153 countries with resources co-created with body image experts.
