Beauty? To me it is a word without sense, because I do not know where its meaning comes from, nor where it leads to ~ Pablo Picasso
Dove’s mission is to widen the definition of beauty. The Campaign for Real Beauty is based on a belief that beauty comes in different shapes, sizes, and ages. And behind Dove is the massive juggernaut of Unilever; these guys are like uber-marketeers. They practically invented branding. How crazy is it that showing a wider range of skin types and body shapes is revolutionary? I buy the stuff because it appeals to me: it’s a rare and precious thing to see wobbly bits and cellulite actually celebrated in advertising. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that self-confident women want to see bodies and faces like their own. And it’s smart to target thinking women, who presumably make purchasing decisions based on more than price alone. Dove is implying it has a moral purpose. Like Anita Roddick’s Body Shop, they are attempting to open the debate on the ethical issues of consumerism: the psychology of women’s self-esteem, the pressure to conform, the stigma of ageing. Yup, all that from a bottle of aloe vera moisturiser :)
This interview was published in the New Yorker last week. Pascal Dangin is an ‘airbrush artist’ and is quoted as saying he extensively retouched photos used in Dove advertising. A look around Google suggests Unilever are in damage control mode, denying he ever worked on the campaign. If it is true, then how fucking disappointing and hypocritical would that be? It would rightly devastate the brand. Which is is shame on a number of levels but mostly because they promised so much more: this was about democratising beauty.
A fascinating insight is the ‘Evolution’ viral video with the potentially ironic tag line: ‘no wonder our perception of beauty is distorted’.
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