Final Essay - With Changes // Real Beauty

Claudia Griffin - Level 05 - Critical Studies - OUCS205


Final Essay - With Changes

Figure One - An example advert from the Dove Real Beauty Campaign

Figure Two - Dove firming cream advert

Focusing on the specific example of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Campaign', critique the use of real women in advertising in the media.

Dove’s real beauty campaign, which began in 2004, has the aim of teaching all women that they are beautiful, despite age, weight or other physical factors. The campaign featured many different advertisements, workshops, and a website filled with self-esteem advice packs, a resource aimed at young girls having problems with the way they look. This website does not seem to be pushing products, instead trying to reassure the viewer that they are beautiful in their own way, and they should believe in themselves. The adverts feature ordinary women posing in their underwear, proud of their imperfections, as they are what make them unique. Seven years after this campaign started, real women are still featured in some of Dove’s advertisements, proving that it has been a successful and memorable campaign.

However, by addressing beauty as an issue, it seems as if Dove are agreeing that women are there to be looked at, linking to the idea of the gaze, where the woman is aware that she is being watched. Berger acknowledges that:

“Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” (Berger, 1972:47) 

Berger is not suggesting that women are vain, but recognizing that because women are aware that men are watching them, the scrutinization can effect the way the women feel about themselves as a result. These women do not necessarily enjoy being watched, but are aware that it happens, and so take extra care with their appearance. By presenting the women in the adverts as beautiful, Dove may still be suggesting that women need to be beautiful to appear in the media. By trying to challenge the stereotype, Dove could be making the situation worse.

Inspirational may be a word used by many to describe the Dove campaign, but when it is considered in more detailed, flaws are apparent, and this revolutionary campaign may actually be hypocritical. Thinking about the reasons behind Dove creating this campaign makes it questionable if their intentions are true, or if Dove are more interested in getting their name out there and trying to sell products to women who end up relying on them.

In the included example advert (figure one), the focus of the image is on the woman’s naked body, which takes up three quarters of the photograph, with her head as the other quarter. The contrasting side of the advert, virtually empty with large amounts of negative space, allows the attention of the viewer to stay focused on the woman. The text is small and not attention grabbing, again, meaning there is no distraction from this woman. Not all of the Dove adverts feature the whole of the woman’s body, but all follow the same formula, of plain backgrounds and simple text, so that nothing detracts the viewers attention away from the focus of the woman.

Posing and allowing the gaze of the viewer to be focused on their bodies, the women in the Dove adverts are looked at and scrutinized. The women are aware of the viewers presence, and this becomes acceptable as,  "The role of women in advertisements is more commonly that of the surveyed object than of the active subject." (Barnard, 2005:74)  

However, the women in these adverts can take on the role of the object and the active subject simultaneously (figure two). The real women are challenging their role of only being something to look at, as they are trying to change the way that women are viewed. The adverts are more for women to see than for men, with the purpose of helping women relate to their bodies and feel confident, rather than to make them feel inadequate. They appear to be comfortable with the gaze, meeting the eyes of the viewer. Although they may be naked, or semi-clothed, they are not there to look sexual but to show off their imperfections in the struggle for change.

However, Wolf, in the Beauty Myth (1991), suggests that the kind of adverts that include real women, are useless, as:

"It is often said that we must make fashion and advertising images include us, but this is a dangerously optimistic misunderstanding of how the market works. Advertising aimed at women works by lowering our self-esteem. If it flatters our self-esteem, it is not effective."  (Wolf, 1991:276)

This is because making women feel better about their bodies rather than worse does not work for selling their products, so these type of campaigns could not possibly continue, as there would be no funding. Nevertheless, research does show that the Dove campaign did improve their sales rapidly when it began, and, as they have continued to use it, this negative approach may be inaccurate.

These real beauty adverts are a dramatic contrast to other beauty advertisements which feature models with a specific look, determining what the ‘perfect’ woman should look like: “Images of successful women are images of youth, beauty, and slimness” (Meadow & Weiss, 1992 in Rogers, 1999:116) These images are harming women’s self-esteem, making them believe that they have to live up to these unattainable attributes, even though they are unrealistic, as these women follow cruel diets, with their days revolving around their looks, and a team of skilled professionals helping them to look faultless, and finally the images being airbrushed to perfection in the final stages of the advertisements anyway. This is not an improvement, as: “To airbrush age off a women's face is to erase women's identity, power, and history." (Wolf, 1991:83) This doesn’t just relate to a woman’s age, but to airbrush any feature on a woman is to change her identity, effecting the way she feels about herself, as if she needs to be corrected. 

Compared to other beauty campaigns out there, the Dove campaign seems refreshing positive. They stand out from their competitors, making them seem a genuine, trustworthy brand, this helping to build a loyal customer base. Women of all ages will feel as if this is the product for them, and so continue to buy, and buy for their children, and recommend to others. Dove’s focus seems to be more on women’s hygiene, rather than looks, using models that wouldn’t fit the perfect, but fake, mould. We are surrounded by images of beauty everywhere we look, there are billboards, TV adverts, magazine adverts, products, packaging and whole women’s magazines packed full of images featuring these immaculate women. There is no escape, as: "The media more than any other discourse source tells us what to seek to make us beautiful, where to buy it and how wonderful life will be when we have." (Wykes & Gunter, 2005:63) Some people understand that is these women’s jobs to look beautiful, and they are not meant to be realistic, and so may think a campaign like the Dove one was not needed, as people should be able to separate the truth from the fake.

Other women may feel as if they unfairly have to live up to the high standard set by models, as:

"Every minute region of the body is now exposed to this scrutiny by the ideal... Each are requires potions, moisturisers, conditioners, night creams, creams to cover up blemishes. Moisturise, display, clean off, rejuvenate - we could well be at it all day, preparing the face to meet the faces that we meet" (Coward, 2000:38)

Coward’s point emphasizes how women are sold a product to improve every aspect of their body. The media has been located as a source of blame for women starving themselves, getting cosmetic surgery, spending hours putting on their layers of make-up, and just generally hating their natural body image.

The hypocrisy of this campaign extends to Dove’s products. While they do sell genuine feminine hygiene products, other unnecessary items, used only for women’s vanity are advertised. These products include anti-aging creams and hair styling mousses. If all women are supposedly naturally beautiful, then they shouldn’t need to buy these expensive, un-needed products; if they are happy with their bodies, they also wouldn’t need these products. Even if these products do fix a ‘problem’ area, the woman will never be truly happy with her body, as another advert will reveal that there is another area she needs to work on, "Beauty can never be achieved; it must always be sought." (Wykes & Gunter, 2005:63) Every detail of a woman’s body seems to be scrutinized in the media. 

From a less cynical point of view, most women do enjoy pampering themselves and trying new products, so, while they may be unnecessary for physical improvements, they may help the women to feel better mentally. "We modify ourselves because that is what women do; it is part of femininity, part of the construction of identity, and it is an extraordinary revenue strand for commerce." (Wykes & Gunter, 2005:51)

It is the media that has told women that they have problems with their body in the first place, and so makes them feel as if they need to buy beauty products to be happy with their bodies. Women feel as if  "Unless we measure up, we will not be loved." (Coward, 2000:38) and so they may think of Dove, a brand they think they can trust, to help them have confidence in their bodies.

Another argument is challenging how real are these ‘real’ women? The women may be older, or bigger, but they still seem to have super-smooth, flawless skin. There are no visible signs of cellulite, and no marks that would make them ‘different’. All are still beautiful women, and could be plus size or older models. There is the possibility that the images have been re-touched, so that the women look their absolute best. Every woman may have her own issues with her body, and these are not necessarily to do with her weight, or age. Things such as excessive body hair; birth marks; scars and deformities, to name a few, may make these women feel like they are ‘weird’, and do not fit into the stereotype of beauty. These older women did not seem remarkably old, and the larger women did not seem particularly overweight; more average. The real women do seem to be naturally beautiful, but maybe that is why they have been chosen to appear in the adverts.

Many women go through issues with their body image as a part of growing up, collecting body hang ups. This shouldn’t be seen as an acceptable stage for young girls to go through, as the effects are harming, with many suffering from eating disorders and image related depression, that others may be unaware of: "When one woman looks at another, she cannot possibly know the self-image within that woman." (Wolf, 1991:286). While the women in these adverts may feel happy with their size or their skin, it is highly likely that there is some other aspect of their body the media has caused them to be unhappy about, as: "Women's relation to their own self-image is much more likely to be dominated by discontent." (Coward, 2000:37) 

It is not just women who are obsessed with their looks, as the media also targets men with grooming products and images of the perfect, fit and healthy male body. "Its a pressure that our culture puts on people these days, but its not just limited to women." (Gauntlett, 20008:86) If Dove was to avoid hypocrisy to men, it should create a real beauty campaign to advertise their men’s product range. 

Unilever, the company that owns Dove, also owns Lynx, a brand whose adverts do the complete opposite to what Dove are trying to achieve, by objectifying women. In these outrageous adverts, the semi-clothed women are posed in a way that is inviting for the viewer to look at, allowing the gaze to be on their bodies, making it seem as if this is accessible and normal. They may be seen as being comical and unoffensive, with playful flirtation, but in reality, they are adding to the sexist stereotype that feminist women have tried so hard to defeat. 

Even if the reasons for Dove creating this beauty campaign were hypocritical, research does show that the campaign has had positive effects, educating many women and helping them to improve their self-esteem, which Dove should be applauded for. This campaign was needed, however, it is only the start. For women to be able to feel confident about themselves, other beauty companies need to follow suit, and capitalize on the hype, as a few have done. In todays capitalist society, where a whole industry has been built upon women’s insecurities, Dove has only begun to change the stereotypical views of beauty. Without the effort of the other companies changing their advertisements, there seems to be no escape from the pursuit of perfection.

If this campaign stopped even one woman from starving herself, or made one woman feel beautiful, then it has been a success. No advert featuring a perfect model can possibly make a woman, especially one with low self-esteem, feel good about herself, whereas this real beauty campaign has the possibility to improve lives for the better.

Word Count

[excluding block quotes] 2,078      [including block quotes] 2,199

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