Since the start of social media, we have seen many campaigns arise throughout the world. Notably, some are better than others. But the good ones are usually really good, and have a very positive impact on a large group of people. Through the use of video sharing and hashtags, the world has been able to utilize social media for awareness and global change.
The Dove Real Beauty Campaign
So many fashion and beauty companies portray women in a way that makes consumers feel badly about their bodies. These companies show photos of women with bodies that are unrealistic and unattainable. Because of Photoshop, any woman can have the perfect body with just a little bit of editing. But what about in real life? A large percentage of women are plagued by the thought that they have to look a certain way and do not believe that they are beautiful because of how they naturally look. Dove took it upon themselves to make a change in this trend and redefine beauty. They want women to love their bodies and not desire to look like anyone other than themselves. In order to make this change, they started The Campaign for Real Beauty.
The Dove Real Beauty campaign started in 2004 and was used in commercials, billboards, magazines, etc. It really took off, however, when it became part of social media. One of the first videos of this campaign that went viral was called “Evolution”, about a real woman who went through a makeover and a whole lot of Photoshop editing to look like a model. This video showed just how fake the pictures in magazines are and that women should not judge themselves compared to these highly edited photos.
Another phase of this campaign was “Dove Real Beauty Sketches”. This video, which has been viewed by more than 62 million people, had women describe themselves to an artist who sketched what was described. Next, they had other people come in and describe the previous woman for the artist. The two sketches ended up looking completely different because of the negative way the women described themselves versus the actual way they looked to others. They realized were so hard on themselves when other people really do think they’re beautiful.
This past year, in 2013, Dove took advantage of hashtags and the widespread trend of taking pictures of oneself, the “selfie”, and turned it into a beautiful self-esteem campaign. Dove asked a group of girls and their moms to take honest selfies and submit them. Their photos were displayed at an art gallery where viewers used Post-It notes to comment on what was beautiful about each photo. This experiment was turned into a documentary called Selfie. Dove extended this campaign and now asks women to take a selfie and submit it to their website with the hashtag #BeautyIs, and describe their view on beauty.
The media has formed a definition of beauty that is so unfeasible. Thanks to social media, we are able to share and spread our views with the world in order to inspire change. Through the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, Dove has been able to inspire women to alter the way they view themselves and redefine what beauty is.
My sister spoke about this a month or so ago. She was saying how powerful it can be to take back self-esteem for young girls and women alike. I remember watching her grow up, hating her appearance, her body, you name it. And I can tell you first hand, she is very beautiful. How are women and young girls going to ever feel truly beautiful when the media is air brushing the crap out of photos? I love this campaign and support it times 10! I would like to see models be the “average size 8 or 10”. You always see models as being two extremes, very skinny or over weight. Neither is healthy or attractive.