Lane Bryant wasn’t the only company that was outraged with Victoria Secrets campaign, Dove was as well. In 2006 Dove’s advert ‘Evolution’ went viral before viral was even a thing! The advert showed a woman having her picture taken and then how easy it is for her to look completely different after she had been photoshopped this was completely unheard of in 2006 for a brand to show this kind of advert, it was the launch of Dove’s Real Beauty campaign and it’s still going even today and has even been voted the most successful beauty campaign of all time. The advert is shown below.
In 2013 Dove released ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ an advert where they got women to describe what they looked like to an artist, they then drew what the person had described as themselves and then the artist drew what they saw when they looked at the person. This resulted in a completely different image than the ones that the women had described. This advert has become the most watched advert of all time. (The advert is shown below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE
When the company first started the first campaign imagery they ever did was the blue tick billboards. The billboards featured women with two tick boxes options next to them such as ‘Fat?’ or ‘Fit” and ‘Flawed? or Flawless?’ passersby could text their answers and the percentage was shown next to the image on the billboard. 1.5 million people responded to the billboards.
The real beauty campaign responded to the Victoria Secret campaign by shooting women in the exact same way that the victoria secret one was shot, the only difference being that the women Dove used were all different sizes and ethnicities.
I love this campaign I think it is fun and also really important. Dove is one of the only brands in the beauty sector that show real women and have done so since they started. With the Real Beauty campaign being the most successful campaign ever, it was important for me to look into it. I think the billboard idea with the interaction of day to day people is really clever especially that the number was shown on the billboards, that is something that will inspire me in my own campaign, that it’s important that the consumers feel involved and can see themselves making a difference.