The history of beauty is a history of carefully crafted conspiracy. It stands on the premise everything in our body and looks are imperfect. Nature has given us a body mass which needs to be peeled, chiselled, twisted, rubbed, polished, nourished, nurtured, groomed on prolonged regimen of care and careful treatment. Feet had been bounded, necks systematically stretched, iron strapped corsets were mercilessly tide to put midriff on a Barbie shape.
History of beauty regimen is a worse than hair raising horror stories. My mother said that post her marriage and child birth she enjoyed lifelong release from this compulsion of looking beautiful. Today at no stage of life beauty lets you leave alone. From teenager to grandmother all are rushing to look more young, more beautiful. Male who were out of this race are a new enthusiastic participant in the beauty fever. Gendered, transgendered everybody is a victim of this beauty trap. Beauty is not just looks it is your identity, tells you who you are.
With proliferation of beauty brands fomenting the desire to be forever glowing in glamour, commercialisation has taken over all sanity. All beauty brands show men and women in perpetual nightmare of dark circles, ugly pimples, undesirable mark, frizzy hair, freckled skins, rough lips, and receding forehead. For them any one of these can be career destroying, can cause family break up, making one look like a unloving mother in front of her children. A pack of hair dye can do wonders to your appearance. Brands sitting on the dressing table are like Pandora’s Box trapping myriad monsters of ugliness. Ignore them at your own peril. All beauty product commercials have one single agenda— refresh the nightmare of ugliness in consumer mind. In the world of beauty care communication darna zaruri hain.
Amidst these dark prophesies and forebodings one brand has consistently created an oasis of assurance in the consumer mind — Dove. Here is one brand that harps and glorifies on what you have rather than what you have not. What started as a repositioning exercise has evolved into a crusade against the metamorphosed world of beauty. This was also a crusade against the media depiction of beauty in the context of a culture of perfection. A woman’s self-esteem is often diminished by the images of physical perfection surrounding her. Dove decided to change the old rules of the beauty from feel bad to feel good. Dove’s mission statement says “To make more women feel more beautiful everyday….Doves sees beauty in imperfection, does not worship stereotypes. Doves’ beauty is self-defined, beauty with brains and democratic”.
Truth is not just stranger but stronger than any fiction that is created in the name of brand building. Dove insight has for years endeared itself to the consumers across countries and decades; it still is striking a cord in the heart and its creative communications are winning accolades in the connoisseurs’ forums. In 2013, Cannes awards crowned two Dove commercials. The one called “Dove real beauty sketch” has connected with consumer big time and went viral much before it was nominated for awards; it became the most watched online commercial of all time. The video has more than 114 million views on YouTube and other video platforms in more than 110 countries. “Dove is committed to building positive self-esteem and inspiring all women and girls to reach their potential. That’s why we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that proves to women something very important: “You are more beautiful than you think.”
Dove viral campaign Real Beauty Sketches shows a forensic artist drawing women according to their own self-descriptions and a stranger’s, and every time women sketched are pleasantly surprised that the sketch made from the stranger’s description turned out to be far more warm and beautiful than the one made from self- description. The women are their own worst beauty critics. In fact, only 4 per cent women around the world consider themselves beautiful. The viral campaign won two Gold Lions for Best Use of Social Media and Best Integrated Campaign Led by PR at the 2013 Cannes PR Lions.
The other Dove commercial that won Cannes Gold Lion is a film named Camera Shy. It almost teases women out of their camera shyness.
The jingle “peekaboo, I see you, I love you , I kiss you , I marry you “ goes on cajoling women in real life situation to submit to shutter as they are busy hiding their faces from camera lens. The whole visual sequence are quick cuts of wonderfully candid reaction shots of women across all ages evading camera — hiding face with whatever object at hand, clutch purse, bed sheets, pillow, pallus ,cushion covers ,ducking, slamming doors, covering lens, and putting barriers. And then comes the compelling super on the screen “when did you stop believing you are beautiful?”
That’s the moment of truth. All baby girls are born dolls, queen of hearts, princess and fairies of their parents.
When did all change down the journey of life? How did a fairy tale turned into a horror story? The commercial seem to reiterate and reassure women nothing has changed my fair lady; the ghost is in your mind.
The commercial ends with shots of giggling little girls facing cameras looking and appreciating themselves in the looking glass. Thirty seconds of slices of life — warm, refreshing, liberating and empowering piece of communication. That’s probably creativity is all about and rightfully therefore it demands its worth in gold.
The writer is VP, consumer insight & human feautres development, McCann Erickson India. You can contact him on kishore.chakraborti@mccann.com