Dove Beauty Campaign: Beyond the Rhetoric

In September of 2004, Dove launched a groundbreaking crusade for women called The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. This movement was initiated in response to the unreasonable pressure that women face every day to meet the impossible standards of beauty represented by media, entertainment, and fashion. Their goal was to embolden women to “celebrate real beauty”, and to help them believe that they are beautiful just the way they are. To prove the prevalence of this insecurity epidemic among females, Dove posted a video on You Tube called Dove: Friends that publicized interviews with random women on the street. Each of the women was asked to state one thing that she loved about her body, but none of them were able to give a definitive answer. They were then asked what they loved about their girlfriend’s body (who happened to be standing next to them), and were suddenly full of compliments. The women’s demeanor changed dramatically between the first question and the next; they went from being a shy, nervous little girl to a confident, enthusiastic ‘infomercial model’ who was trying to sell her product (which, in this case, was her friend). Dove concluded the video by asking viewers how they can see the beauty in someone else when they are unable to see the beauty in themselves. The ad connected with the women emotionally, but failed to incorporate effective logos and ethos appeals.

At first glance, all the money and hard work that Dove has poured into the campaign for true beauty is admirable. They make no mention in the ad of how their products will help women achieve ‘real beauty’, so this campaign appears to be a selfless commitment to the welfare of the female population- at least to the naked eye. It is no coincidence that the campaign was born at a time when Dove was experiencing a decline in sales due to heavy competition in the beauty industry. Dove executives realized that they needed to do something completely different in order to stand out, and their unconventional campaign gave them all the press they needed. The commercial used ethos by conducting seemingly candid interviews with real women on the street, which made them appear credible. But was this depiction of the female population’s painful self-consciousness accurate? Do women really have higher standards of beauty for themselves than they have for their friends? Women generally try to avoid the appearance of being stuck up and vain, so is it possible that they were being overly humble in the ad? If their friend hadn’t been standing right there, perhaps they wouldn’t have been so flattering in their response to the second question. Maybe they simply gave the appropriate answer, regardless of whether or not it reflected what they really felt. It was interesting to note how one of the ladies described her friend as having ‘the most amazing physique and body”, while tracing an imaginary hourglass shape with her hand. The friend was obviously not ‘hourglass shaped’, so I can only wonder if the picture in the ‘artist’s’ head of an amazing physique was somewhat different than the body she was actually describing. This is not to say that her friend was at all lacking in beauty, but the example illustrates the harsh reality that women likely hold others up to the same standards of beauty that they hold for themselves, they just might not verbalize them. All in all, Dove’s basis for their theory in this video seems to be staged and doesn’t depict an objective portrayal of women. The campaign also pushed ethos by using the highly recognizable and respected name of Dove, which aids in the appearance of credibility.

This ‘feel good’ ad was completely devoid of logos; Dove never explains exactly how they will help women achieve the goal of real beauty. They made some broad assumptions about women, which I believe should be challenged with some questions. The campaign hopes to change the world’s idea of beauty, but are women really that easy to convince? Also, women may appreciate the all-inclusive approach to beauty that Dove is offering, but is this campaign ignoring the masses of women who still want a product that makes her more beautiful? If the Dove: Friends ad is not making an appeal to the logic of women, what it attracting people to their product?

Apparently, pathos is all the Dove ad really needed to grab the attention of their target audience; this can be verified by their upward spike in sales following the launch of the highly emotional campaign. In the article The Real Story Behind the Success of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, Marti Barletta notes that “the US sales for the products featured in the ads increased 600 percent in the first two months of the campaign. The Campaign for Real Beauty has exceeded company expectations; global sales surpassed the $1 billion mark in 2004”. So how did the campaign use pathos as their approach, particularly in the Dove: Friends ad? Well, women tend to base their decisions off of emotions, and not necessarily their logical thought processes. Also, most women desire to be beautiful, but are constantly fighting with feelings of insecurity and imperfection. When women don’t feel beautiful their emotions are negatively affected, which in turn impacts the decisions they make. The Dove: Friends ad effectively taps into this common psyche by identifying with women and their struggles, and providing an inferred solution that supposedly fixes their feelings of inadequacy. This is accomplished without articulating one practical way in which their product will help.

My critical conclusion to the ad is that Dove did not successfully appeal to logos and ethos. It did, however, effectively target the emotions of women. The point of the Dove Campaign remains a little ambiguous, but it seems that women are spending their money on an idea, not a product.