Dove celebrates 20 years of ‘Real Beauty’ with renewed commitment
Dove is celebrating 20 years since it began taking action against society, media and the beauty industry’s harmful impact of unrealistic beauty standards on women and girls.
To celebrate this milestone, the brand shared a recommitment to take action in dismantling toxic beauty standards until beauty is a source of happiness and confidence, not anxiety, for everyone. This will include standing for real and championing transparency and diversity in the space by committing to never using AI in place of real individuals in its advertising.
To help set a new standard of representation in the digital world, Dove created the Real Beauty Prompt Guidelines, which share advice on how to create images that are more representative of true beauty on popular generative AI programs.
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“At Dove, we seek a future in which women get to decide and declare what real beauty looks like – not algorithms. As we navigate the opportunities and challenges that come with new and emerging technology, we remain committed to protect, celebrate, and champion Real Beauty. Pledging to never use AI in our communications is just one step. We will not stop until beauty is a source of happiness, not anxiety, for every woman and girl,” said Alessandro Manfredi, chief marketing officer at Dove.
In addition, Dove is also sharing results from its 2024 The Real State of Beauty report, which found that more than 1 in 3 women in the United States would give up a year of their life to achieve an ideal look and body.
The study also found that although beauty standards have evolved over the last few years and become more inclusive of race, orientation, gender and size, the list of appearance of ideals is also becoming impossible to meet with 81% wanting to look healthy, 72% wanting to be slim, 69% want a small waist and 59% do as well while also being curvy, the brand shared.
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As a way to highlight all of this new information and its recommitment to working on this initiative, Dove is debuting its “The Code” campaign, which reflects on the impact of AI on beauty and sheds light on the importance of women having the power to see real beauty reflected in new and merging media.
The campaign will be supported by a cast of famous faces, including Reba McEntire, Drew Barrymore, Beanie Feldstein and Marsai Martin.
