Dove: "Real Women" Campaign

[esmereldagrubb]

If I wanted to see real people I would just go outside.

EXACTLY! They are referring to them as REAL women, and models ARE NOT because these are women you could see in the real world or by just going outside......you dont see a world of models walking around, so dont get so offended by not being considered "real"."Real" just means ordinary and not rare.

 

[miss artemis]

its REALLY nice

 

[Melisande]

Hmm... some thoughts:
Do you see "real women" here? I see a group of uniformed women of basically one body type congregating just to look at you and laugh. They are not allowed to look natural, but fabricated to conform. Their body language is perhaps most troublesome of all: they seem cliquelike and uninviting, almost pushing their contentment, superiority, and kinship down your throat. It seems very unreal to me, just as unreal as any glamorous Vogue editorial, and even more unsettling because of its righteous exerior and hidden agenda.

What does this say? Whether they use models or "real people", the idea of an ad is still the same: to sell by inciting envy or desire to belong--usually by insinuating that we don't belong unless we buy a certain product. As Stiletto brilliantly puts it, "Sadly, its never about celebrating beauty or women. It's always about one side vs. the other." In this advertisement, they the "popular" Dove-users v.s. we the "lowly" non-users...

 

[Simone]

I dislike this campaign a lot. Even though some people are thin and beautiful it doesnt make them any less human than anybody else. People are born that way. Its not as if we have a choice of how we prefer to look.

 

[esmereldagrubb]

I dislike this campaign a lot. Even though some people are thin and beautiful it doesnt make them any less human than anybody else. People are born that way. Its not as if we have a choice of how we prefer to look.

no, but it puts them in a very low minority.This campaign is about the MAJORITY.Its not putting anybody down. Models and thin and beautiful people dont have a stigma and arent looked down on in the media like "normal" sized women are....so they dont need a campaign like this to make a statement, or to try and be more readily accepted in society...they already ARE.

 

[sasseestefanie]

The ad is definintely something different to look at... but I'm going to have to agree w/disliking it. It sure doesn't make me want to go out and buy the product.

 

[iluvjeisa]

no, but it puts them in a very low minority.This campaign is about the MAJORITY.Its not putting anybody down. Models and thin and beautiful people dont have a stigma and arent looked down on in the media like "normal" sized women are....so they dont need a campaign like this to make a statement, or to try and be more readily accepted in society...they already ARE.

Err...at least 3 of those women in the ad would easily be the "prettiest girl in class", even if none of them are Vogue material. In the real world - the thinner, the better is not quite true - that's only in the fashion world. In the real world it's BMIs between 17 and 22 are potentially very attractive. The rest is average (23-30) or freaky looking (<17, 30>).

 

[Simone]

Err...at least 3 of those women in the ad would easily be the "prettiest girl in class", even if none of them are Vogue material. In the real world - the thinner, the better is not quite true - that's only in the fashion world. In the real world it's BMIs between 17 and 22 are potentially very attractive. The rest is average (23-30) or freaky looking (<17, 30>).

^I agree. For the love of everything holy and divine, they dont even make jeans for very skinny, tall people in the stores. I, and others such as me, have to custom order all of our pants because somebody decided that "real" women arent skinny. It a very creative marketing strategy though.

 

[esmereldagrubb]

"Real women ARENT unnaturally skinny.^

 

[Neo_Classic]

Thank you, Esmereld! Geez, when will peolpl understand that there is a difference between being HEALTHY and UNHEALTHY. These two categories apply to any bodyshape. I don't care if you're Kate Moss, Tyra Banks, or heck even Queen Latifah. If you're not healthy then you're not fit, and you certainly aren't a real woman IMO.

 

[Luna]

This thread is going down an ugly road... if comments get too ugly, we'll have to do some editing or even close the thread down... Please be civil, guys

 

[odelay]

I'm not crazy about this campaign... it seems too gimicky. I agree with whoever said that it's just trying to cash in on Jane Everybody instead of showing a real concern for body and diversity acceptance.
I like Dove's deoderent, though. good stuff.

 

[IdiotGirl]

I think saying that being unhealthy is not real is a bad analogy. Honestly, even if these models are eating disordered or whatever, does that make them not "real"? I have a mental illness and I'm just as real as anything. You don't have to be confident and happy with yourself to be real. To me being real is to have feelings and be a living, breathing human being.

Sorry but I think models are human beings. They aren't like cats or dogs or whatever.

 

[iluvjeisa]

Thank you, Esmereld! Geez, when will peolpl understand that there is a difference between being HEALTHY and UNHEALTHY. These two categories apply to any bodyshape. I don't care if you're Kate Moss, Tyra Banks, or heck even Queen Latifah. If you're not healthy then you're not fit, and you certainly aren't a real woman IMO.

You know, when you have to assert that people who aren't fit or healthy aren't "real", whatever THAT means, you are dangerously close to rather unsanitary political philosophies. A woman is a person with two X chromosomes, or should I say two DAX genes, anyone who has this is a real woman.

 

[Simone]

I didnt say anything about health, but a person can be "unnaturally" thin and still be healthy.

 

[mishahoi]

for anyone like me who had not seen the ads on tv or in print, dove has set up a hole website just for the campaign http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

i think some people are taking this too personally... dove is just milking the fact that they are not using the run-of-the-mill vogue type models like most every other brand out there. they are targeting the mass majority, and whether those few of us who are one extreme end of the spectrum like it or not, its not going to make the $$ a move like this possibly could. but i guess we will see when (and if) some figures come out.

 

[OriginalSin]

there's an article on the Slate about this campaign for anyone who's interested:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2123659/?GT1=6772

 

[Neo_Classic]

Luv, is that what you came up with? You knew exactly what I meant. Did I hit a cord?

 

[Deleted member 1957]

al the same its a great idea and they r headed in the right direction though i also agree, there are skinny women that also have very serious issues with their bodies. But then again many people have this idea that thin women have more than enough ads targeted to them, and real women really means average sized women in lay man's language.

 

[Deleted member 1957]

i also loved their ads where they had the women with wrinkles, freckles...