As part of a demanding, highly competitive, and more often than not pretentious industry, the Unilever brand, Dove, sets itself apart by endorsing the “real woman” as its ambassador. Dove has streamed away from the tarnished old tactic of selling beauty products by augmenting the consumer’s desire to reach an unreachable beauty. Instead, the brand has become an advocate for a revolution in the industry’s public relations efforts highlighting the flaws of the current communication model and giving light to the negative impact that it has had on society. Finally here is a brand that not only knows its consumer, but is also listening to them.
In 2006 Unilever launched its Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. An effort to promote Dove’s Self – Esteem fund (a global project consisting of a network of initiatives that help foster self-esteem by providing educational programs to young women), Dove’s integrated marketing strategy revolved around one goal: redefining beauty. Instead of a traditional focus on sales, the new message focused on strengthening its consumer relationship by listening to their frustrations and voicing the call for new, and most importantly real, representation of “beauty” in the marketplace.
The campaign used different communication channels to reach a wide variety of consumers. Print advertising and television for a more passive audience, relying on creative and visuals to draw in attention to the message, versus microsites and brochures, with more in-depth information, for active audiences who may have already had a knowledge base. The most noted and successful effort of the campaign was launched on YouTube in October of 2006. Dove’s “Evolution” video was produced by Oglivy & Mather in Toronto, Canada. The 75 – second spot opens with a fairly average looking woman coming into the studio and sitting down in front of the camera. Two harsh lights are flipped on and the time-lapse sequence begins. Intense music dives the viewer deeper into the emotional appeal. Make up artists, multiple hairdressers, photographers, all working for the transformation. Once the physical adjustments are done, photoshopping fixes the remaining “imperfections”. Through added vectors and pixels, the woman’s neck is elongated; her eye color is changed; and her eyebrows are raised. The product is a strikingly beautiful billboard poster. The video closes with the following quote: “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted”.
The original message turned its volume up through the viral success of this speechless video. Dove’s biggest challenge was to derive a message that could be heard, understood, and retained by all women. While other materials for Dove’s Real Beauty spotlighted the everyday woman, “Evolution” flipped the camera inward and showed the viewer a powerful and intense production system that is able to fabricate and deceive. The lack of dialogue allowed the audience to focus on the visual evidence and not be influenced by outside noise such as the credibility of the speaker, and his/her relevance to the subject.
As a result, traffic to the campaign’s micro site increased, suggesting that the video was able to instigate interest among passive viewers. In February of 2006, the Real Beauty Super Bowl commercial resulted in almost 500 million impressions. Eight months later, Dove’s “Evolution” generated more than 1.5 million views in less than a month. The most remarkable aspect of the video is that whereas the Super Bowl spot cost $2.5 million, the upload of “Evolution” to YouTube was free. The buzz echoed throughout the blogosphere and was quickly picked up by mainstream media channels such as CNN and the Ellen show.
The beauty industry is infamous for distorting the perception of natural beauty. Since the start of marketing and advertising, experts in the field use overworked pictures of god-like celebrities to endorse its products. The negative effect of such campaigns is not unknown to the public. Many organizations have lobbied against the use of communication tactics that promote an unrealistic view of beauty. However, Dove is the first insider to fight against the nature of its own kind through a message that is consistent, memorable, and believable.
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