The New Truth In Advertising

The Dove marketing campaign called Real Beauty is an inspiring message to all women to love the beauty of their natural curve and figure. It is a campaign like no other before it in the sense that it uses real women. Dove held a casting call for women of all shapes, sizes, and colors to find proper representatives of Real Beauty. They needed to select a number of real women to be the models for their soap, hair, and skin products. The women range from short skinny “flat-chest” women to tall shapely women with thick thighs. The efforts of the campaign are to get women of all walks of life to see and value their real beauty and not strive for some unobtainable structure which years of advertisement and pressure of society has brain washed women to achieve. This revolutionary move in advertisement has struck a chord with women everywhere and is incredibly effective.

Let’s remember that Dove sells soap, conditioner, and lotions. Dove encouragement to appreciate your real beauty steals sales from women who would cover up blemishes with make up to buy Dove facial soaps and moisturizers. Women who would burn their hair in salons with highlights and chemicals are now motivated to use Dove shampoo and conditioner to revitalize their hair and keep natural. Dove’s message speaks so intimately to women that they almost feel obligate to be faithful consumers. Dove so fully compliments women it is an incredibly seductive campaign, but it is packaged as caring and thoughtful. Dove is comparable to the dirt bag friend that a boyfriend can’t trust, because the second there is a fight in the couple the friend is there to comfort and hold the poor pain inflicted female.

It can be that after years of such under handed tricks and cheap gimmicks that consumers have become callus and cynical to the point of not buying into Dove’s campaign. There is something about that white background and light blue dainty writing that seems pure, believable, and comforting though. Still, genuine or not the campaign is absolute genius. The campaign gives Dove a conscience which the general public can even consider a soul. This separates dove from all of the spiritless soap suppliers like Caress and Irish Spring.

Despite the possibility that Dove’s campaign could be a scheme to out sell other hygiene product labels it is still a much needed message to today’s women. Hearing the message from teachers, friends, and mothers is never as comforting as seeing it in a magazine or on television. Seeing is believe for most of today’s public; and for a young shapely girl to see someone as pear shaped as her on television and a beacon of beauty then she too can be a new standard of beauty. Of course in order to best present and preserve her beauty she must use Dove products, but at least she isn’t pigeon holed into a unfavorable category of appearance. In reality women buy such products to be able to love themselves more, so why not buy something that fluffs your ego.