Buzzworthy Beauty

Real Women Have Curves: "The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty"

When Dove launched its global advertising project "The Campaign for Real Beauty" in the fall of 2004, women all over the world began to reinvent their ideas about what it really means to be beautiful and feel proud and comfortable in their own skin.

The ongoing project supports the Dove mission: to make women feel more beautiful everyday by challenging today`s stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take care of themselves. According to their website, the brands commitment to the mission starts with using real women of various shapes, ages and sizes to provoke debate and discussion about today`s image of beauty.

The buzz worthy campaign featured six women, none of whom were professional models and who all varied in shape and size, age and ethnicity. Clad in nothing but their underwear, the women proudly posed for esteemed fashion photographer Rankin as they showed off their wrinkles, curves and bumps for the entire world to see. The women were featured in advertisements, interactive Web programs and attention grabbing billboards. The campaign helps support the new Dove firming products with messages provoking women to challenge beauty stereotypes" Let`s face it, firming the thighs of a size 2 supermodel is no challenge" and "New Dove Firming. As tested on real curves".

Although the advertising techniques were not shocking or wacky by themselves, however it was the content in the ads that had people talking. The six women featured in the ads appeared in short films, on morning news shows, day time talk shows and Oprah even dedicated an entire show to the campaign and the story behind the brave women who bared it all in the name of "real beauty".

Suddenly women from all over the world joined in on the debate on the company`s website where they could cast their votes on the questions raised in the advertising campaigns and engage in an ongoing dialogue about beauty by posting to discussion boards, hearing from what women around the world are saying and downloading researching studies about beauty.

The company also donated $1 to uniquely ME! , a partnership program with Girl Scouts of USA that helps build self-confidence in girls ages 8-14 with resources and program activities, for every person who signed the Campaign for Real Beauty pledge.

Not only did Dove promote and advertise a new line of firming products, the "Campaign for Real Beauty" encourgaged women of all ages to embrace their every freckle, dimple and curve. Dove focused on the importance of women learning to love their body, because once women are able to love the skin they`re in, the real beauty will shine through.

To find out more about the "Campaign for Real Beauty" and Dove`s line of products visit their website at: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/ or http://dove.com/