Dove Evolution- The Campaign for Real Beauty

     Dove decided to make a difference with their Campaign for Real Beauty. Their goal was to let girls and women know that they are beautiful and to not allow the media to impact their perception of a positive self image. Dove wanted to raise self-esteem and awareness of what beauty really is. The Dove Evolution ad showed what advertisers do with photo shop to an average girl to make her "beautiful" to societies norms. They lift her eye brows, elongate her neck, and change pretty much everything on her face. The transformation is drastic. People are unaware when looking at this advertisement that she is not a real person, and her looks are computer generated.
      Dove wanted to transform the idea of beauty in young girls' and women's minds. On their website, they have tips on improving self-esteem and self confidence. You can even get your own self esteem certificate by taking a quiz. They also give mothers and mentors advice through workshops, guides, and discussion boards.  This allows mothers to share their views on the topic of self-esteem. Dove wants mothers and daughters (girls) to help participate in reversing the downfall of self- esteem. They highlight key statistics to make everyone aware that this is a huge epidemic that needs to be stopped:

• Seven in ten girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school, and relationships with friends and family members. 

• 75% of girls with low self- esteem reported engaging in negative activities, such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking, or drinking when feeling badly about themselves.

• 57% of all girls have a mother who criticizes her own looks. 

• More than one-third of girls with low esteem believe that they are not a good enough daughter

      I think Dove's campaign is a great way to make mothers and children aware of societies perception of beauty. Today, media is filled with skinny, tall women and not many average sized women. You rarely see plus size women on the covers of magazines unless the story is about how much weight they've lost. Hopefully, this campaign will help lead the transition to higher self- esteem in girls and change societies views on what is "beautiful".