Evolution

In 2006 Unilever teamed up with Ogilvy & Mather and launched its Dove Campaign for Real Beauty to promote its newly created Dove Self-Esteem Fund.  The first stage of the campaign was based around a series of billboard advertisements put up in the United Kingdom, and later worldwide.  These billboards featured real women as the models, instead of the usual flawless models, taken by Annie Leibovitz.  The ads invited its viewers to votes whether a particular model was “Fat or Fab” or “Wrinkled of Wonderful”, displaying real-time results on the billboard itself.  Along with the billboard advertisements was publication of the “Dove Report”.  This report is a study, which Unilever intended to create a new definition of beauty, which will free women from self-doubt and encourage them to embrace their real beauty.

The heart of this campaign was the Evolution video, shown above.  The video starts with Stephanie Betts, an ordinary girl, sitting down in a studio.  Two harsh studio lights are turned on and the camera is then switched to time-lapse sequence.  You then see a team of people putting make-up on and fixing Betts’ hair.  At the end of this sequence, Betts looks beautiful.  Then all hair and make-up team members move off screen as the photographer takes shots of the model.  Once a single shot is selected, it begins to get edited.  Adjustments such as:

·    lengthening the neck

·    adjusting the curve of the shoulder

·    altering the hair and skin

·    enlarging the eyes and mouth

are made.  This final image is then transferred to a billboard advertisement for a fictional company and the piece fades to read, ”No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.”  The film ends with an invitation to participate in a Dove Real Body Workshop.

Evolution was incorporated into the Canadian Campaign for Real Beauty website in order to coincide with the start of LA Fashion Week.  Shortly after, Tom Piper, art director, uploaded the video to YouTube in hopes of it going viral. Once uploaded, the advert was viewed over 40,000 times in its first day, 1,700,000 times within a month of its upload and 12,000,000 times within its first year.

Based on its hits, I would say it is safe to say that Dove made the impact it hoped to- get women to free themselves from self-doubt and encourage them to embrace their real beauty.