Launched in September 2004, Dove’s Marketing campaign for Actual Magnificence challenged conventional magnificence requirements and promoted self-acceptance, that includes photographs of actual girls of various ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicities that bucked the traits of earlier campaigns within the sector.
It was based mostly on the perception that solely 2% of girls globally thought of themselves to be stunning, largely due to the idealized photographs of girls they had been bombarded with in promoting, media and standard tradition. And bear in mind, this was earlier than the daybreak of smartphones and social media which have piled on the strain much more.
It resonated a lot that the important philosophy behind the marketing campaign remains to be being utilized in Dove’s communications and advertising to today, as evidenced by the #TurnYourBack activation that gained Marketing campaign of the 12 months at March’s 25th anniversary PRWeek Awards.
#TurnYourBack pushed again on the Daring Glamour generative AI filter pattern that swept social media final 12 months. The filter airbrushed customers to a single magnificence customary, altering folks’s faces a lot that some thought it ought to be banned for its potential psychological well being results. Inside 72 hours of the filter’s launch, Dove partnered with 68 influential creators asking them to #TurnYourBack on the filter.
It was a traditional extension of Dove’s No Digital Distortion motion and Self-Esteem Undertaking, which had been themselves constructed on the Marketing campaign for Actual Magnificence idea.
These days you see girls of all ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicities on the entrance of magazines, on vogue present runways and past. This isn’t solely all the way down to Dove’s marketing campaign, but it surely positive contributed a hell of loads to the revolution.
Originated by Ogilvy & Mather and activated in partnership with Edelman, the marketing campaign was named better of the final 20 years at PRWeek’s 20th anniversary awards again in 2019. It was the final word proof of the worth of performing purposefully when it comes to constructing a model and producing revenue for an organization, displaying that the 2 are usually not mutually unique.
I bear in mind being on the launch of the Marketing campaign for Actual Magnificence in London in September 2004. Curiously, the lead presenter was a person, Ogilvy’s legendary inventive strategist Rory Sutherland, which I’m positive wouldn’t have been the case right now.
However Sutherland’s distinctive tackle advertising and branding definitely fitted the temper of the night time, as the nice and the nice of the British promoting trade gathered to have fun what was instantly clear can be an iconic piece of labor.
Sutherland’s mantra has at all times been to do issues backwards. In different phrases, begin with the buyer and make the most of bottom-up technique to work towards the enterprise case on the high of the funnel. And that was definitely the philosophy of the Marketing campaign for Actual Magnificence. As Dove’s CMO Alessandro Manfredi stated this week: “We’ve demonstrated there is no such thing as a tradeoff between goal and revenue.”
Kathryn Fernandez, senior director, Dove goal and engagement North America, and the remainder of the Dove workforce rang the opening bell on the NYSE earlier this week, noting on LinkedIn: “This long-standing marketing campaign continues right now with its unwavering dedication to illustration, confidence and empowerment.”
Dove additionally marked the milestone by recommitting to the philosophy behind Actual Magnificence and pledging it might by no means use AI to symbolize actual girls in its promoting.
It launched a world magnificence research that estimated as much as 90% of what we see on our screens would be the product of generative AI by 2025. Virtually eight out of 10 girls (73%) really feel extra strain to be stunning than eight years in the past, and almost 9 out of 10 girls and women (85%) say they’ve been uncovered to dangerous magnificence content material on-line.
So, the work is under no circumstances completed but. I’m wanting ahead to seeing how the Dove workforce and different model entrepreneurs use creativity to deal with vital points comparable to these over the subsequent few years, whereas persevering with to promote extra merchandise and make revenue for his or her firms.
