By Scarlett Alston |Staff Writer|
A great big thanks to Dove for supporting women of all shapes and sizes.
I believe Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty encourages women not to give into media and social standards of what beauty should be.
Breaking the beauty mold in today’s society is tough, especially in a world consumed by the importance of body, shape and size.
The soap company’s Campaign for Real Beauty empowers women to embrace their natural beauty, regardless of their shape, size, or race. Dove’s goal is to help girls and women challenge beauty standards through self-acceptance.
Dove’s latest viral campaign, featured on YouTube, shows a series of retail stores around the world with two entrances; one labeled “average” and the other “beautiful.” Women had to pick which one to walk through.
The video displays how more often than not, women chose the “average” entrance.
Since its release, a #choosebeautiful hashtag was created on social media sites, such as Twitter and Instagram, to encourage women to see themselves as beautiful instead of average.
Many believe the Campaign for Real Beauty is a self-esteem booster, while others say it is merely a marketing tactic to gain more revenue.
“The problem is, of course, that Dove’s not in the business of changing beauty standards. They’re in the business of selling soap,” states Mari Brighe from TheDailyDot.com.
I do not think Dove would create an appealing campaign based on a widely controversial topic solely for the sake of business.
“I don’t believe they have built this world-known campaign just for the publicity. I feel that they truly believe in what they are advertising about all women being beautiful,” said student Samantha Merlos.
Dove has even avoided using celebrities in any of their commercials or advertisements to show that they are trying to reach out to everyday women.
However, business is business, which is why Dove created such a moving campaign to improve both marketing and societal views on beauty. You can’t expect a company to promote an idea without having an agenda to help them as well.
One controversy that has sprung out of the campaign is Dove’s lack to make skinny women feel beautiful, promoting “skinny shaming.”
“[Dove’s Campaign] aims to show beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, [but] neglects to show all shapes and sizes,” stated Tori Mirian from candornews.com.
Mirian also questioned whether or not skinnier women are considered beautiful too.
“I do think that by putting too much emphasis on making heavier girls feel good about themselves that they in turn shame skinny girls, consciously or unconsciously,” said student Alyssa Navarro.
Dove has been known to include women of larger or fairly larger body types, but why should that be considered skinny shaming?
Skinny women are praised and displayed on television, fashion billboards, and in magazines every single day.
The Real Beauty Campaign is not a skinny shaming or strictly business marketing tactic.
It is simply a campaign to help women who are seen by society as “not as pretty” or “less beautiful” feel accepted and self-empowered.
In the beauty-based society we live in today, I think Dove is making great strides with their campaigns to help every woman feel beautiful, happy, and bursting with self-esteem.
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