In the Eye of the Beholder

When I was in Salt Lake City, I sat in a seminar led by the Unilever Corporation exec and the VP at the marketing firm that was responsible for the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Many of you have probably seen this video, titled Evolution. The woman featured is just an average woman, a cartoonist. And when they showed her the final billboard, she didn't recognize herself.

The reason that Dove launched the campaign was in response to the results of a survey conducted that found that an astounding 80 percent of women did not consider themselves beautiful. Many teenagers said they would avoid life activities, such as going to school and playing sports, because of how they look. This led to the iconic little girls commercial that debuted during the Superbowl and showed young girls with tags like "Thinks she's fat" and "Hates her freckles." The whole campaign is beyond marketing genius - it's taken on a role of social commentary that's extraordinary.

And now Dove has launched a new campaign (and, of course, a new product) that features older women in the nude and promotes the ProAge product line. The stance is that beauty has no age limit. Bravo to Dove for finding another way to support women of all ages in feeling beautiful.