About
Dove Real Beauty Sketches is a video advertisement released in April 2013 as part of the personal care brand Dove’s Real Beauty ad campaign. The video shows forensic artist Gil Zamora drawing sketches of seven women based on their self-description of facial features, which are then compared to a second set of sketches based on the recollection of a stranger the subjects had spoken to earlier that day.
Origin
On April 14th, 2013, Dove uploaded six videos realting to the Real Beauty Sketches campaign to their YouTube account, doveunitedstates.[1] The videos included the overview video in a three-minute (shown below) and a six-minute version. The other four videos focused in on the experience of three of the subjects, Florence, Kela and Melinda, as well as sketch artist Gil Zamora. As of April 19th, the 3-minute overview video has nearly nine million views.
Real Beauty Campaign
Dove’s Real Beauty campaign first launched in 2004[2] with videos, commercials and print ads intended to celebrate physical variation in women.[7] The campaign used images of six women (shown below) with different skin tones and body types posing in white underwear, suggesting that women do not have to fit in to model ideals or stereotypes to be beautiful. In 2005, Dove’s sales went up 20%.[6] It was in part inspired by a study[5] completed in September 2004 by researchers from Harvard, the London School of Economics and market research group StrategyOne that found only 2% of the 3,200 women surveyed described themselves as “beautiful.”
Spread
Within five days, the video was shared on Facebook more than 1 million times[3] and tweeted about more than 22,000 times.[4] On April 15th, it was shared on the women’s interest subreddit /r/TwoXChromosomes[8], where it gained 175 upvotes and 135 points overall. In the following days, the video was picked up by several online and mainstream news outlets, including Huffington Post[9], E! Online[10], TIME NewsFeed[11], ABC News[12] and Yahoo! News.[13] On April 17th, the first parody of the advertisement was uploaded to YouTube by newfeelingstime, reenacting the video from a male perspective, in which self-esteem is not a problem. The parody clip was featured on Neatorama[14], Laughing Squid[15] and AdWeek.[16]
Controversy
Though the video was generally perceived as a positive piece, many bloggers began to note their criticisms of the ad as early as April 16th. That day, Tumblr blogger Jazz Brice[17] posted a lengthy critique, noting that although the video does include people of color, they are only on screen for approximately 10 seconds in the longer version of the ad. The post also noted the emphasis on “thin” as a positive descriptor, a point emphasized the same day on Feministing.[18] Brice’s post was featured on The Daily Dot[19] the following day. Also on the 17th, blogger Kate from Eat The Damn Cake[20] emphasized the ageism behind some of the traits deemed negative, including moles and wrinkles. Over the next two days, the controversy surrounding the manner in which the video depicts beauty was discussed on Psychology Today[25], New York Magazine[21], Salon[22], Parade[23] and AdWeek.[24]
Search Interest
External References
[1]YouTube – DoveUnitedStates’ channel
[2]Wikipedia – Dove Campaign for Real Beauty
[3]Viral Video Chart – Dove Real Beauty Sketches
[4]Topsy – Tweet statistics for “dove real beauty sketches”
[5]The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report – Home
[6]Forbes – Beware the Hidden Traps in Cause Marketing
[7]Dove – The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty
[8]Reddit – /r/TwoXChromosomes – Dove Real Beauty Sketches: from self-descriptions and from a stranger – [3:01]
[9]Huffington Post – Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ Ad Campaign Tells Women ’You’re More Beautiful Than You Think’ (VIDEO)
[10]E! Online – Dove Real Beauty Sketches Campaign Gets Women to Rethink Their Looks
[11]TIME NewsFeed – WATCH: Viral Dove Ad Uses Sketch Artist to Illustrate Women’s True Beauty
[12]ABC News – Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ Sketches Change Women’s Image of Themselves
[13]Yahoo! News – Women Are Own Worst Critics in Revealing Dove “Real Beauty” Ad
[14]Neatorama – Dove Real Beauty Sketches for Men
[15]Laughing Squid – Dove Real Beauty Sketches For Men, A Parody by New Feelings Time
[16]AdWeek – Low Self-Esteem Is Not a Problem in Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches … for Men
[17]Tumblr – jazzylittledrops: Why Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” Video Makes Me Uncomfortable… and Kind of Makes Me Angry
[18]Feministing – “Dove Real Beauty,” self-esteem, and One Direction
[19]The Daily Dot – Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign masks real racism
[20]Eat The Damn Cake – the problem with the dove real beauty sketches campaign
[21]NY Mag – The Cut: Beauty Above All Else: The Problem With Dove’s New Viral Ad
[22]Salon – Stop posting that Dove ad: “Real beauty” campaign is not feminist
[23]Parade – Dove ‘Real Beauty’ Video Sparks Debate
[24]AdWeek – 5 Reasons Why Some Critics Are Hating on Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches Video
[25]Psychology Today – What’s Wrong With Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches Campaign?