Dove is a brand of beauty products under Unilever limited. The Dove campaign for Real Beauty was a campaign strategy by Unilever which was launched in 2004. This campaign was prompted by Dove's interest to give beauty a wider definition ( Goins, 2016). Most of the women had their body size and shape defined by the society's stereotypical beliefs. According to a worldwide Report “ The Real Truth About Beauty ” most women do not describe themselves as beautiful. It is only two percent of women that describe themselves as beautiful ( Bissell & Rask, 2010). This confirms the theory that postulates that the real meaning of beauty has not been achievable. To challenge the societal stereotypes about beauty, Dove made use of various tools of communication to give beauty a deeper meaning. Dove used social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to reach to the audience. The approach of the campaign involves video, advertisements, sleepover events, workshops, book publication and creation of a play. The main objective of this campaign was to change the definition of the beauty given by the society. Dove's mission was to ensure women felt beautiful regardless of the beauty stereotypes defined by the society. This essay will focus on the messages and persuasive messages used by Dove.
Mass media presents an impractical image of women. Be it on television, billboards or social media platforms, the image of a woman presented is always the same; a beautiful flawless woman with amazing body shape and size. This influences women's beliefs on beauty. The media plays a major role in portraying the women's ideal body and this brings about dissatisfaction in most women ( Zhang, 2010). Research has it that self-esteem and peer pressure affect self-image a great deal. The interaction between male and female also has an impact on the views about self-image. The main purpose of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was to banish the stereotyped beauty standards in the society and establish the real meaning of beauty as well as market their products.
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The campaign involved improving self-image for women with all body sizes, shapes, and color. This used the self-proof principle. Illustrations of self-reliant women with different body shapes, sizes and shapes have the same impact as of the illustration by Cialdini on how children overcome their fears through watching other kids involved in activities that cause tension. A study by Myers and Biocca (1992) postulates that television programs portraying women's body image can define their beliefs. Unilever's strategy is to challenge the societal conception of beauty and providing a different and wider definition of beauty.
One of the videos that Unilever used in the campaign is “ Dove Real Beauty Sketches " video whereby women were requested to explain how they look like to a legal artist and the artist would sketch them according to their description. The acquaintances were asked to describe the women and another sketch was produced. Then the women were shown both sketches. In all the cases, the sketches obtained from the description from the acquaintances were much better than the sketches they described themselves. The last part of the video had the message "You are better than you think". This video got the women thinking they have been judging themselves so harshly. In this video, Unilever used happiness and surprise to create emotional appeals. The video successfully empowered women to appreciate they are beautiful.
Unilever employed Elaboration Likelihood Model as a persuasive appeal to reach to the audience. The Elaboration Likelihood theory refers to a binary theory used to explain distinct ways of processing motivation to enhance change of attitude ( Häfner & Trampe, 2009). The theory postulates that the audience is involved in either peripheral or central processing. Peripheral processing occurs when motivation is low while central processing takes place when the audience is highly motivated. Research shows that most women are motivated to engage in conversations pertaining body image and beauty. The attitude of the audience is changed when the new messages motivate them. This makes them reevaluate and disregard the ideas they previously had about beauty. Unilever employed positive messages to engage women in a beauty conversation and this led to successful attitude change.
There are other audiences that are less instigated by the subject matter. Such audiences are actively engaged in cognition on the main idea. Although showing different women with different body images on media may not be positive, it could instigate peripheral processing on the audience. Attitudes from the opposite sex and peer pressure are the main influencers of self-image. Men have an impact on how women view themselves. The messages used by Unilever in the campaign could change men's attitude on the features of a beautiful woman. The messages also reinforce the attitude of the men that are comfortable with women of all body sizes. Women also have their own description of an ideal body of a man as defined by the society. These messages could impact their attitudes and also change the views of men about their body.
Unilever also used guilty as an emotional appeal for the campaign. The messages made women guilt for having been comparing their images with unrealistic images portrayed by the media hence judging themselves harshly. Both men and women also felt guilty for defining beauty with regard to the stereotypical definitions given by the society. Unilever induced guilt on the audience and the message was effectively relayed. This is because the induction was moderate. A high guilt induction could flop and cause hate towards the message making it ineffective.
An example of the video that Unilever applied moderate guilt is “A girl’s body confidence starts with you” video. In the video, daughters and mothers were interviewed on their body image views ( Millard, 2009). Their attestations indicated that young girls already have a negative attitude towards their body image. The mother's negative opinion about themselves also contributes highly to their children's attitude. This fact induces guilt to mothers for having been the cause of their daughter's negative attitudes and they are afraid their children may carry the attitude to adolescence and to adulthood. The guilt and fear instigated on the audience prompts the change in attitude and promote eradication of negative emotions. At the end of the video, there is a message of how mothers can relieve themselves from the fear and the guilt. The video has positive messages that mothers could share with their daughters. This is covered by Protection motivation theory which involves recommendation of a positive response to clear the guilt. There is a rational claim in the emotional appeal whereby an argument that a daughter’s self-image is influenced by the mother’s attitude about her body image supporting the hypothesis that the likes and dislikes of a child conform to those of her mother. A parent’s attitude has a direct link to a child's attitude and behavior.
Dove also used Social comparison theory which gives an evaluation of the comparison between our traits, ideas, attributes and opinions and those of the people we choose to compare ourselves with. This model states that people have an intrinsic push to assess their ideas and capabilities through contrasting themselves with other people ( Miller & Lammas, 2010). The comparison can either be a downward or upward comparison. An upward comparison involves comparing oneself to someone that is regarded as better for the purpose of improving oneself while a downward comparison involves comparing oneself to someone considered to be inferior in some dimension. The images posted on social media makes one carry out an upward comparison to an image that is defined by the society's beliefs. This model illustrates how advertising can lead to dissatisfaction when social media users compare themselves with a societal stereotyped image ( Johnston & Taylor, 2008). However, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty explains to the women that they are the better versions of themselves. This makes them realize how harshly they had been judging themselves by comparing themselves to unrealistic images.
The Dove campaign for real beauty had a positive impact on women and their views about beauty. It preached that women are naturally beautiful. The messages in the campaign were motivating and uplifting but are not connected to the product in a manner to increase the sales of their beauty products. The main objective of the campaign was to advertise the beauty products. However, the strategy used by dove was intended to motivate women to feel good about their natural self. Literary, if women are inherently beautiful like Dove claimed, beauty products which are made to enhance beauty would not be important. But the positive impact on women's body image led to women buying the beauty products while feeling good and positive about themselves. The fact that the campaign impacted women positively outweighs the impacts of the weak connection between the products and the campaign messages.
In a campaign that uses scientific persuasion to successfully enact positive attitudes about self-image on women of all shapes, color, and size, it is hard to trace areas of enhancement. The viral videos induced both surprise and happiness, moderate guilt and fear while helping women with messages to enhance themselves. They also equipped women with encouraging messages to better their attitudes and clear their guilt. Moreover, the messages changed men's views about an ideal beautiful woman.
References
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