Campaign for (Hardly) Real Beauty

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So, the “Campaign for Real Beauty”, sponsored by Dove, is a worldwide marketing campaign launched in 2004 that includes advertisements, video, and workshops. The principle behind the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves. Dove's partners in the effort include such marketing and communications agencies as Ogilvy & Mather, Edelman Public Relations, and Harbinger Communications (in Canada) This campaign has also spurred on a phenomenon whereby attractive women with bodies that better reflect 95% of the female population are referred to as Dove Beauties.

As part of this campaign, in 2006, Dove started the Dove Self-Esteem Fund that claims to change the Western concept of beauty from ultra-thin models with perfect features to making every girl (and woman) feel positive about her looks, no matter what they are. In an effort to promote the Fund, Dove ordered a series of highly-successful online-based short films promoting the self-esteem concept.

The campaign has been criticized on the grounds that Unilever also produces Fair and Lovely, a skin-lightening product marketed at dark-skinned women in several countries. It was also widely noted that Unilever’s advertising campaign seemingly contradicts the sentiment of the Campaign for Real Beauty. Not to mention the fact that Unilever also owns and markets their AXE brand of deodorants, where overtly sexualized women are its campaigning staple. This appears to be starkly hypocritical - in contrast to Dove's campaign - as Unilever utilizes "idealized" female sexuality to market AXE products towards young men.