Controversy: The Dove "Real Beauty" Campaign

The Dove Real Beauty campaign is a good thought. Basically, Dove decided to feature models who were not exactly flawless in their appearance to model in their advertising campaign. The problem is that the company Unilever, which owns Dove, became very two-faced in appearance because of their advertising used in Axe campaigns that do use models who are touched up to an unrealistic and virtually unachievable version of beauty. Also, the Axe ads use female sexuality to market to younger men, which does not make the company look good when comparing it to the Real Beauty campaign in which they attempt to prove that real beauty can be found in anyone.

Dove's Real Beauty campaign would also be much more effective if they did not "touch up" the models as much. It also may have gone too far when they allowed votes to be cast by campaign viewers by allowing them two choices to vote on to describe the model in the particular Dove ad. A thin line may exist when allowing a viewer to vote a model as "fat" or "fab." This is especially the case when the Western concept of beauty is so deeply rooted in our society that the negative choice prevails.

The image above is from Dove's Real Beauty campaign. One signifier is the woman's gray hair. Gray hair can signify experience and wisdom. However, it can also signify being elderly and, in cases when the gray hair is beginning prematurely, it can signify stress. In the case of this ad though, it seems to signify being elderly more than anything.

I believe that the Real Beauty campaign would be more successful without allowing people to vote. In addition, Unilever would look better and the whole campaign would be less controversial if they did not advertise beauty and sexuality in Axe campaigns. Perhaps if Unilever cared about Dove's Real Beauty campaign and what it stands for, they would use the same view that beauty can be found anywhere with all of their products.