Dove: Real Beauty Sketches

Dove is known for their commercials that show the "truth" behind what we often perceive as beauty, how it is developed, and how it affects us in our daily life. Perhaps one of their most famous commercials depicting this reality is their "Real Beauty" campaign, in which women were asked to describe themselves to a sketch artist. They then were instructed to talk to a perfect stranger, who later went in and described what he or she saw in the same woman to the same sketch artist.

As you can see in this ad, the sketch the stranger described was always much better and more "beautiful" than the sketch the women described of themselves.This I felt connected to the film, Miss Representation, that we watched in class, as it shows how women are taught to be critical of themselves and their looks, and the effects of that. In addition most of the women depicted in the ad were of middle age or older, an age group that is ridiculed, demonized, or not even represented in our modern media. These were the individuals shown most prominently in this ad, the ones whose sketches showed the most difference. The takeaway message that is shown here is that your real, natural beauty, your "inner self" so to speak, is what really matters. We may see ourselves as ugly on the outside, but someone else may view a true beauty. It's a bit useless to think about the things you want to change, when you can think about the things you like. This is part of Miss Representation's message, and that is what is being reinforced in the video up above.

But although the video may have a somewhat positive message, one must not forget that it is an ad by Dove, a company that sells body lotions and soaps, as well as the occasional beauty product. Though Dove is pointing out a serious issue in how women view themselves, we have to understand that Dove is also a member of the business that take advantage of such insecurities. Yet they try to make themselves appear different, as the ones who recognize and appreciate a woman's natural beauty, making it worth buying. All it is is diversion, distracting from the truth that Dove actually promotes self-consciousness and perfectionism, seeing that that is what drives their profits. And so we have yet another deceptive piece of media that takes advantage of women, albeit an extremely thought-provoking one.