Dove

Historically, Dove has represented women in their adverts as very glamorous and conventionally attractive with a very feminine look. They are often show bathing but wearing lipstick, eye shadow and nail polish. In 2002 Dove rebranded and did research and found that most women do not describe themselves as beautiful and 68% think they are average and believe that media creates unrealistic beauty standards that makes women feel worse about themselves. With this data Dove created the campaign called 'Real Beauty' by using normal people in their advertising to highlight the problems with hyper reality that them moved towards the 'evolution' campaign to show the world that they are being lied to by the beauty industry.

Final thoughts

Dove challenges beauty standards that are created and blown out of proportion by the beauty industry.

The 'good mother' stereotype

Over many years , the media has constructed a societal stereotype of the mother as a woman who cooks, cleans, cares for her child and is happy and fulfilled in this role. The 'good mother' has been represented as a glamourous individual who is calm, loving and organized, her children are well behaved, polite and obedient. Her realm is the home/ kitchen and things go smoothly for her. She is wise and in control. 

Dove real life, real beauty

Mother stresses about what her children are doing

Eye level/ mid- wide shot allows you to see the expressions and emotions and the reality of motherhood through the actors. For example, the expression on the child's face show joy and pride in the action he is partaking in, on the other hand the mother is concerned about the children.

To costumes being casual removes the 'good mother' stereotype where everything is perfect, the children are controlled by the mother, this is opposite what is happening.

The slogan Real life, real beauty' shows celebration of the normal, instead of the big asperations behind motherhood, showing its not always perfect and smooth sailing.

Behind the actors, is a full fridge indicating the children are still looked after very well despite their behavior. Also, the lack of father figure could stereotype the father being at work whilst the mother looks after the children.

Instead, advertising started connecting products and services with ideals. This is called associative advertising. The ads provide indirect information and communicate intangible about a product. Associative ads don't appeal to the features of the products themselves. Instead they corolate the product with a lifestyle.

#BeautifullyRealMoms

81% question on surveys said that adverts made them feel like their not doing good enough

99% of mothers said they felt pressured to be perfect

The campaign was done by taking photos of mothers living their everyday life with their children. This showed the real side of caring for your children compared to posing for a camera and different shots.

hashtag- modern and forward thinking- it appeals to the digital native and encourages audience interactivity and participation. The hashtag invites mothers to participate in the campaign. They can tag it, use it. This subsequently empowers them, by enabling them to upload images of themselves. This technique not only unites woman but dove's campaign.

composition and layout- brand name and slogan in top left so your eyes see it first. The hashtag is in the bottom right, making it the last thing the audience will see. The primacy and recency makes it easy to remember.

Lack of product image- This goes against typical conventions