Dove brand was launched in 1957, and since the moment Dove advertising message has been a constant: It’s not soap. It’s a beauty bar. The picture of cream pouring into the bar was the iconic image Dove used in ads for nearly five decades.

In 2002, Unilever (owner of the Dove brand) reduced number of its brands from 1,600 to 400. Dove was nominated to be one of the master brands, so it had to come up with a message that could speak for all its products such as soap, body wash, deodorant, hair care and body lotion. Brand should become a beauty brand, not just a beauty bar.


In order to unite the entire Dove product line under one message The Campaign for Real Beauty was launched in 2002. The message was: Real beauty can be found only inside and every woman deserves to feel beautiful.

Ads featuring women who were not models at all appeared on billboards and other traditional media. They invited people to vote whether these real women were “fat” or “fit”.

The goal was to engage people to participate in the campaign, and it was a success. By the way, more people have voted for “fat”. This convinced Dove marketers to make the next step and to talk about self-esteem.

The Campaign for Beauty expanded into the Self-Esteem Campaign during the 2005 Super Bowl. The message in the commercial had an enormous impact and the story was picked up by credible media and bloggers alike.

Dove used YouTube to ask their consumers to help create the Self-Esteem Campaign. To get things started, Dove posted a fast-motion, one-minute film entitled, “Dove Evolution,” which shows the process of transformation of usual girl into a model due to skills of make-up master, photographer and designer. The film ends with the tag line: “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.”

The YouTube Dove film has been viewed over three million times and has brought more attention to the Campaign for Real Beauty than the 2005 Super Bowl ad.

Dove, the brand with a point of view, now had customers with a point of view.

This campaign is considered to be one of the most successful using “free media”. Did you participate to the initiative? What do you think about the campaign?

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Pitch on BootB from Dove brand - Digital activity for Dove HairMinimising for 2010
Another Pitch on BootB from Dove brand - The Dove Inside Out Challenge
Campaign for Real Beauty - official website
Branding evolution: the Dove story by Knowledge@W.P. Carey
Full set of Campaign for Real Beauty posters