Dove's campaign for real beauty

[Brian2]

Here's a little movie on what 'we' are doing to young people's idea of what beauty is.

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com...olution_v2.swf

[gi1976]

OMG! I got goose bumps by watching it.
I am really impressed, superb work!
Thank u for sharing.

[Kraellin]

hehehe, so true

[Godmother]

Doesn't it make you feel bad about our line of work?

[Littlecoo]

Doesn't it make you feel bad about our line of work?

Well something as blatant as that does make my skin crawl which is an understatement really from the perspective of a recovering anorexic who does retouching (yes...tis ironic lol) But I think in one way there really isn't anything new or different here (fundamentally) than in, say, Botticelli's paintings...he would have started out with 'real' models and betcha they bore scant resemblance to the figures in his finished paintings. In another way now it's hard for people recognise such deception- the 'lie' looks so real.

Hmmm...where does Dove draw it's fine line in the retouching of it's advertising images?

Aargh...someone shouldn't have left that soapbox out...a body could trip on it and hurt themself!

[gi1976]

I personally feel really bad when I retouch my pictures too much. When this happens then I start over again to keep my photographs more realistic

[raniday]

It's sort of fascinating to watch because we already knew about it, but they're right; this has made us women and girls feel like ugly ducklings awaiting the great transformation.

[creeduk]

When ever I get a chance I show people just how many edits are done on average to the image of a woman in a magazine to show that there is not one "real" person in there. How they will one week touch an actress up to perfection but if the story is to drag one down they will find an unflattering image and then edit it to increase the effect. the contrast between both edits is enough to sell the magazines but neither is real.
It usually makes people feel a lot better when they truly realize how fake things really are. The problem is the people who try to attain this look and of course fail.

[pepperspray]

This guy does amazing retouch work, and the difference between the before and after images are quite astounding.

I won't get too much on a soapbox about advertising and the beauty myth, because I see educating my daughter on how advertising works and how she needs to think more critically about ad images and slogans, (even the feel good 'anti-fashion' ones like Dove), and how sophisticated the advertising industry is at social engineering.

These beauty myth exploding adverts are very cleverly designed. It reminds me of when The Body Shop had that campaign about how there were a couple of billion woman in the world, and only 8 were supermodels, and we are all different sizes and shapes and should feel good about that - or something to that effect. Everybody loved it, and The Body Shop's profits went through the roof! The Body Shop also put out t-shirts with the slogan: we should all be proud to be various shapes and sizes and wear that politik proudly! LOL. They were hypocrites, though - the stores only sold smaller sized t-shirts. Bigger people just don't carry the anti-beauty myth fashion as well as smaller, hipper, prettier people.

So, yeah - good on Dove for exploding the beauty myth? Or is it just another slick marketing campaign, designed to boost profits, based on meticulous market research, customer profiling, psychology, fashion trends, etc, etc?

Trust me; the moment it's more profitable for Dove to change marketing tactic and jump back on the unreal beauty thing, they will.


(Yup. I'm a bubble-poppin' cynic! )

[NancyJ]

I dont think its that clever or slick and I dont think it took meticulous market research to come up with. Its just jumping on the bandwagon of whats been a controversial issue for at least the last decade (probably 2 but I'm only 24 )
With rising obesity in every western nation, the populous is becoming increasingly obsessed with diet and image.
I doubt they give a rats ass about the psychological effect of the beauty and fashion industry on society as long as we buy their product.
Notice that they push this campaign along-side products in opposition to their message - firming anti-cellulite cream and self-tanning body lotion - products designed to help us conform to current standards of beauty.

When it comes down to it you're not going to sell beauty products using fat ugly models - unless its some kind of gimick. Its never going to become the 'norm' to use 'real' people in beauty and fashion mags.

[Mike]

Along the same lines

http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/retouc...uch/index.html

[pepperspray]

It's amazing what they can do, isn't it! Amazing work.

But, for the sake of impending teen angst, I will definitely show my 12 year old daughter that site, Mike. Especially as she and her friends are into Girlfriend magazine at the moment.

Thanks!

[Ying]

Is that Photoshop they are using for the retouch?
It looks somewhat like it, but not quite...

[creeduk]

There is another example here this site has a portfolio of before and afters of both Men and Women and the transformation is amazing but yet again portrays an image of perfection unachievable. Also check out composite/Manipulation on that site. Several of the images in both areas are well known celebs.

[Panpan]

The latest in the Dove campaign.
http://haha.nu/funny/slob-evolution/