Only 2% of Women are Beautiful

Just before you get hostile at the writer for his insensitive judgment, let me just clear my name and quickly reveal the fact that it is a scientifically proven research who stated this, let me tell you the whole story.

In 1957 Unilever launched its Dove; the gentle moisturizing soap bar which, unlike other ordinary brands, treats the skin with a softer and a smoother look. The product rocked, and was prescribed by dermatologists in 1980s for skin treatment.

In 2000, a strategy plan called “Path to Growth” was set by Unilever according to which the company axed 1200 of its 1600 brands at that time. Among the remaining 400 brands, Dove was selected to be a power brand. Such transformation altered the brands of many antiperspirant, deodorant, hair care, body lotion, and soap products to be covered by Dove. With Unilever throwing its powerful marketing muscle behind a smaller number of power brands -one of which is Dove- this brand had to be advertised in a much wider scope than the smoothness and the glowing of the soap bar. Dove had to be a “prespective”.

Silvia Lagnado was selected to be the Global Brand Director for Dove. Lagnado and her team’s research outcome revealed the discomfort and discontent of women worldwide with the way such stereotypical image of the “young, white, blonde, and skinny” is persistently referred to and promoted as the embodiment of beauty by most beauty brands. Taking the research to the professional level, Silvia and her team sought the assistance of experts. “The Real Truth about Beauty: a Global Report” was commissioned by Dove and managed by StrategyOne, a specialist applied research firm based in New York, Dr. Nancy Etcoff of Harvard University, and Dr. Susie Orbach of the London School of Economics. The aim was to investigate the extent to which women perceive themselves as beautiful and how their perception of beauty affects their own well-being.

The study surveyed 3,200 women in 10 countries aged 18-64. The findings are shocking. Only 2% of women choose “beautiful” to describe themselves although 72% of them want to be beautiful and want to be perceived as such. What is stunning is that 80% of women could distinguish qualities which make women beautiful but they are not able to recognize such qualities in themselves. Most women’s low self-esteem and insecurity when the chord of physical appearance and physical attractiveness is hit is a direct outcome of the demoralizing practices of cosmetics industry. The gigantic cosmetics industry with its annual booming revenues of over $200 billion is maliciously using this urging sense of insecurity and magnifies it for women; “you need an even color…wrinkles are invading…your hair is not shining…cellulite…dry skin …oily skin… too ordinary skin…” The list is endless. The message conveyed to women by most beauty brands is: “Something(s) is wrong; we have what you need to be beautiful.”

In 2004 Dove launched the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty in quite a brilliant initiative to challenge the prevailing depiction of beauty in ads and media. The campaign’s goal was to make a long sought-after change in the image by which beauty is equated and to widen the current definition of beauty to inspire regular women and make them become more confident. In one of the most successful and influential campaigns in the 20th century, women were being reached out. The campaign was not centered on the product as much as it was centered on addressing challenges of self-confidence and insecurities among women. The campaign started with a series of billboard advertisements showcasing photos of regular women. Passers-by were invited by the ads to vote whether a particular photo was, for instance, “grey or gorgeous?”, “withered or wonderful?”, “flawed or flawless?” with the results of the votes dynamically updated and displayed on the billboard itself. Women were encouraged to see their real beauty and to embrace it without being pushed to buy a product to become beautiful.

The series of the billboard ads received significant media coverage from talk shows, mainstream news broadcasts, newspaper columns and women’s magazines, to name just a few. The media exposure generated by such coverage was estimated to be worth more than 30 times the paid-for media space. This stage of the campaign was followed by the launch of a digital campaign enabling customers to spread a message of “feel good”. The Dove Ad Makeover campaign aimed to improve women’s beauty confidence by replacing the negative and criticizing messages they receive everyday about their physical appearance and attractiveness. Through a Facebook App, Dove enabled customers to be in charge of speeding positive messages replacing negative ones. So messages like “Lose weight now!” and “Get a bikini body in 6 weeks” for example would be replaced with “Hello beautiful”, “Every body is beautiful’, and “Your birthday suit suits you.” On its official site Dove published: “A huge 71% of women we spoke to after the Dove Ad Makeover said that they felt more beautiful as a result of the campaign.”

With another creative step by Ogilvy & Mather, Dove’s campaign manager, and in a moving ad, you get to see beautiful young girls with comments about things they do not accept or like about their bodies. “Hates her freckles…Wishes she was blonde” were some of these comments which actually reflected what the girls thought about their bodies. For over a decade now Dove has been trying to build self-esteem not only for women but for young girls as well. With the aim to help young girls to reach their full potentials, accept themselves and embrace their real beauty, Dove initiated its Dove Self-Esteem Fund to help millions through its educational programs.

In 2006; two years after the campaign of Dove Real Beauty was launched, the Landor Pulse of engaging CPG brands, which explores brands performance in four attributes: cares for customers, trustworthy, social, and helpful, selected Dove as one of the fastest growing brands in the world in terms of market value and authenticity. Dove’s sales have jumped from $2.5 to $4 billion since the launch of its Real Beauty Campaign.

Perhaps the question to ask now is: Can brands change the world?