Discover Beauty

Dove is empowering woman to be their best selves. For thousands of years women across the globe have gone to great lengths to look more beautiful: Eleventh century Chinese women binding their feet, Victorian women removing ribs for smaller waists, and young girls today starving themselves to obtain the look to be beautiful. Everywhere women of today are bombarded by media that implies messages that we are not beautiful enough. Dove has taken a stand and has said enough is enough. It is time for us to see that beauty comes from inside each of ourselves and as Italian actress Sophia Loren shares,“Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.”
The first thing I saw when I opened the Dove website was an invitation to join the self esteem movement across the nation and a link to it’s own website. It was not a picture advocating one of their many products, but an invitation to help each of their consumers find the inner beauty inside themselves. This says a lot about their commitment to this project. Many companies do their part to better the world and support good causes, but only a sincere few would welcome viewers into their website with such an invitation. Dove is taking their campaign seriously.
One of the first times I heard of their campaign for beauty was when my friend emailed me a commercial from the Superbowl in 2006. Companies spend tremendous amounts for a few seconds of airtime in between plays; dove was one of those companies. However, instead of directly selling their products to America, they employed pathos and warmed the hearts of women and girls everywhere. Their commercial which was less than a minute encourages girls to show their “true colors...because every girl deserves to feel good about herself.” By focusing on the girls true beauty, Dove accomplished two purposes: one, helping the audience feel better about themselves and two, setting themselves apart.
Dove has continued to set itself apart from other beauty companies and it shows through their campaign for true beauty. Other companies market products that will erase wrinkles or cover up bad spots while Dove is proclaiming to women of all ages that they are already beautiful, a clever marketing technique. Naturally, women appreciate sincere compliments and reassurances of self worth which Dove provides. Rather than buy products from a company that tells you beauty comes after buying their goods, Dove tells their customers that they are already beautiful. On their website, there is a link that tells “how your purchase helps build self-esteem.” Not only do they tell women of their natural beauty, they donate a portion of their profits to charitable organizations such as Girl Scouts of America that helps build self worth in young women. Not only can we buy products from a company that celebrates our natural beauty, our money spent with them goes to help other women reach the same understanding.
Pathos is further employed through the emotional connection to their consumers can be seen by interviews and commercials with everyday women. They establish credibility not from experts or statistics, but from normal women with normal struggles. They put themselves on the same level as their rather than an idea image which women can only achieve through professional make up artists and computer programs (as seen in another commercial). The commercial ends with the words, “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted” and follow up with an invitation to “take part in the Dove Real Beauty Workshop.”
Dove utilizes various multimedia forums to get their message across. Besides televison commercials, Youtube has a plethora of videos from the Dove Foundation with similar messages: discover real beauty. There is an entire website dedicated to promoting their self esteem campaign (http://www.dovemovement.com/). The website is the central hub of activity and is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. It is chalked full of articles, quotes, sayings, and movies that help anyone to feel good about themselves; I have never felt so uplifted after doing research for a paper as I have reading the Dove website. When I clicked on the link to the page, I was greeted by a video of two sweet little girls playing hand games and giggling. A few seconds later one of the adorable girl says she does not like her dimples because people make fun of them. Hearing that tears at my heart strings! Who has the right to tell anyone, especially this precious girl radiating with beauty that her dimples are ugly? The directors at Dove assumed this would be our reaction and wanted the viewers to realize the harmful affect our words can have.
To fight the affects of hurtful words, when signing up for the movement, they ask for advice we would like to give to girls that we wished we knew at 13. On one of the pages, there is hundreds of tidbits people have shared to help young girls feel better about themselves. Even though I am not in the vulnerable times of middle school, I too found the advice to lift my spirits and encourage me to be my best self. Jen said, “Follow your dreams and never let anyone tell you you can't do something because of the way you look. You are perfect!” Regina said, “You matter- you are smart, pretty, not just outside, but inside. Your heart is tender and also compassionate. Love yourself!” April shares, “Beauty is far more about the way we treat others and how we handle the way others treat us. [Beauty is a] positive attitude toward life.” Sara shares my favorite advice, “the things that made me feel so *different* then are the very things that I love the most about myself now.” Reading these words helps me realize that I can be who ever I want to be and that I am beautiful just the way I am.
Other features of the website include quizzes, self-esteem tutorials, announcement of nation-wide conferences, online workshops, and global studies. There is something for everyone from the little girl to the elderly woman. Reading the study’s findings amazed me; only three out of ten girls happily view themselves while the other seven do not believe they measure up; 75% of girls with negative self esteem harm their bodies through cutting, drugs, smoking, drinking, and disordered eating to name a few (compared to the 25% of girls with high self esteem). These statistics establish how big of a problem this is. Not only do American teens deal with these issues, but women of all nationalities. As you enter Dove’s site, it is necessary to pick a certain country to get to the website specifically tailored for each region establishing the fact that we are not alone--women of around the globe are going through similar struggles.
Dove uses the media to spread their message far and wide: women, we are beautiful! Through television ads, youtube videos, and a useful and interactive website, their message is reaching a wider audience everyday. While they may be using the pathos to help sell their products, I am going to support their noble cause because “every girl deserves to feel beautiful.”