Dove's Ad Makeover Case Study by Tanya Grover

Doveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ad Makeover Tanya Grover, Olivia Feathers, & Sam Eastes Professor Joseph Erba JOUR 420 28 April 2016

I. Introduction (Sam) Dove launched its Ad Makeover campaign in 2012 in partnership with Ogilvy & Mather and Unilever. The campaign gave consumers the power to control the advertising they see on their Facebook. It did this by creating an app that allowed women to design ads with body positive messages in place of the typical ads they would have otherwise been exposed to. This campaign was novel in the way it approached selling beauty products for women. Unlike many companies that to sell their products by capitalizing on the sexual objectification and body shaming of women, Dove used empowerment as its primary method of marketing. The ultimate goal of Dove’s Ad Makeover campaign was to reestablish and further develop the idea of Dove as a body positive company in the minds of its consumers. Dove’s prior campaigns already established the initial association of the company with women’s empowerment, self-esteem and body positivity. Because beauty product companies do not typically use this method, it allowed Dove to stand out among its competitors. This case study will examine Dove’s Ad Makeover campaign from its original launch in April 2012 through the end of December 2012. During this time frame, the campaign was only available in Australia and Brazil; however, Dove relaunched its campaign to nearly 20 other countries the following year. Through our selected timeline, we were able to analyze and assess the factors that ultimately contributed to the campaign’s success and the company’s decision to grow it. The overall research question we aimed to answer through this case study is: How did Dove promote body positivity and self-esteem in women with its Ad Makeover campaign from April to December 2012?

II. Background (Sam) In recent years in the United States, feminism and advocacy for gender equity have increased in popularity and practice and resulted in the formation of a body positive movement. As a result, advertisements featuring objectified or hypersexualized women have been increasingly criticized. In response, companies have implemented advertising and campaigns focused on celebrating diverse bodies. Notable companies that have contributed to this trend include Aerie, ModCloth and, most notably, Dove (Dubecky). Dove’s Ad Makeover campaign is part of the larger, ongoing Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was revolutionary when it premiered in 2004. The campaign launched after Dove sent out a worldwide survey called “The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report” (Dove Ad Makeover). Its results revealed that only 2 percent of women considered themselves beautiful. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty seeks to promote confidence and self-esteem in women regarding their appearances. Previous sub-campaigns of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty have included advertisements using “real women with real bodies and real curves,” a short film called Evolution and advertising celebrating all ages featuring women with “wrinkles, age spots, grey hair and all” (Dove Ad Makeover). Dove launched its Ad Makeover campaign in 2012 as a result of a 2011 survey conducted by Dove and the London School of Economics reporting that still only 4 percent of women describe themselves as beautiful.

III. Methods (Sam) Dove’s website proved to be the most effective tool for finding information about the campaign including the history of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and why the Ad Makeover campaign was launched. The “Real Beauty” page on Dove’s website provided

information on the primary campaign as well its various sub-campaigns. We used the “Ad Makeover” page on Dove’s website for information specific to the Ad Makeover campaign. Information from this page included background information, goals and results. For information about reception of the campaign, we relied primarily on blogs, social media and news articles. By searching for phrases like “Dove Ad Makeover” on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, we were able evaluate the campaign’s reception by the target audience. A simple search for “Dove Ad Makeover” in Google provided us with numerous blogs and news articles about the campaign. It was also effective to search “Dove Ad Makeover” in Google News and search through the existing archives. While there is an abundance of information about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty as a whole, it was slightly more challenging to locate specific information about just the Ad Makeover sub-campaign. Information was often found in articles and blogs about the overall campaign; however, there were a number of pieces written during our timeframe that focused primarily on the Ad Makeover sub-campaign.

IV. Publics (Tanya) In its most basic segmentation, the audience of this campaign is women, because Dove’s entire underlying assumption is that body positivity and self-esteem are issues that theoretically all women can struggle with, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, class, etc. However, it would be impossible to successfully target an entire gender category, so the campaign is actually discreetly targeted towards specific types of women. By combining the campaign’s main components of promoting self-esteem and eliminating negative advertising, one can identify two types of women that Dove clearly focused on as the main benefactors of the Ad Makeover. First, women who don’t think their body type is ideal and subsequently have self-esteem issues were targeted

for viewing body positive messages in the advertisements, ideally boosting their self-esteems. The second type of women are those who don’t see their body type portrayed (positively) in the media, and were therefore targeted as the most likely people to actually utilize Ad Makeover to create a personalized ad speaking to their own body and experiences. Additionally, during the time period we are studying the campaign was exclusive to Australia and Brazil, having not appeared in the United States or any other countries until its relaunch in 2013. Therefore, geographically the campaign’s public was women living in these two countries during the time of its initial launch and promotion. In addition, because the campaign was comprised of an app shared and viewed on Facebook, one could further specify the audience as Australian and Brazilian women of the personality types described above who maintained a Facebook account and frequently utilized it as a social media outlet. The latent public would have been women living in Australia or Brazil at the time of the campaign’s launch with access to technology and/or a Facebook account, but for whatever reason were not exposed to the Ad Makeover; had they been exposed, these women may or may not have had the mindset of Dove’s target audience or responded in the desired outcome. The aware public was those women who saw the app’s promotion on their Facebook timelines or knew of the campaign but did not participate or share it with others, having virtually zero effect on the campaign either positively or negatively. The active public would have been the women who actually used the app to create the body-positive ads to share with their Facebook friends, thus promoting the campaign’s cause in addition to its publicity. These women most likely obtained personalities aligned with the two specific types of women Dove aimed to target and impact. So, women making up the active public theoretically participated in the campaign with either a more individualistic approach of

boosting their own self-esteems with body positive messages specific to themselves, or with a more media-focused mindset by sharing message and images of their own body types they wished to see in advertisements.

V. Findings based on data from the organization (Olivia) Dove created many materials to create the dynamic and interactive campaign that was Ad Makeover. The most fundamental of these was a Facebook app that allowed women to choose the ads that they would see on their Facebook sidebars. Women also had the option to displace negative ads on friends’ sidebars and replace them with feel-good messages of their choice. According to Global Vice President of Dove, Fernando Machado, “We chose to use Facebook because of its power and reach in social media, to propel these positive beauty messages to as many women as possible” (Munter). The brand also took advantage of Facebook’s polling feature to assess the potential messages that would be available to users on the app. To promote the campaign itself, Dove released a promotional video on its YouTube channel and the on the campaign’s individual Facebook page. This video highlights the problem that sparked the campaign--the fact that only 4 percent of women globally consider themselves beautiful. It then takes viewers on a virtual tour of the app, clearly demonstrating how women can use it to make a positive influence on their own lives and the lives of others. The main claim that Dove was making through the campaign was that advertising has tremendous power to influence the way women see themselves, either positively or negatively, and that Dove brand seeks to empower all women to love their bodies. Strategies to disseminate this information include: utilizing social media to spread awareness of a campaign, allowing for consumer-interaction in the campaign via a mobile application, and harnessing the power of

advertising to change common misperceptions concerning the female body (Dove UK). Social media was viewed as a powerful platform because of its extensive reach into the inner circles of members of its audience. Consumer-interaction is a strategy integral to much of what Dove does as a brand, and harnessing the power of advertising was not only the major tool in this campaign, but was used to help open women’s eyes as to how truly impressionable people can be when it comes to what the media tells us. Dove’s tactics are as follows: creating an interactive app that allowed women to choose the advertisements that would be displayed on their Facebook newsfeed and the newsfeeds of their friends and family, creating a Facebook page for the app itself, developing a promotional video digging deep into the roots of the campaign and how specifically the brand was planning to fix the problem of negative advertising, allowing women to directly vote on the message of the advertisements they would see each time they logged into Facebook (“The perfect bum is the one you’re sitting on,” “Be your beautiful self,” etc.), developing a Pinterest page for the campaign, and over-bidding for ad space on Facebook to promote the messages that the women would vote to see. This over-bidding process was key to the success of the campaign because Dove, while unable to actually replace the negative ads it was targeting, was able to ensure that their positive and supportive messages would appear in their place simply because of the amount paid for the media space. Dove used the symmetrical model of communication in this campaign. In communicating with its audience, women who felt that their bodies were not worth as much as others and women who felt that their bodies were not represented in the media, Dove promoted two-way communication with its consumers and conducted a follow-up study at the end of the campaign. It also utilized polls to determine which messages would be available to women who would use

the app. The entire campaign was based on a 2004 study conducted by Dove (in which only 4 percent of women reported feeling beautiful) reinforcing the idea that almost all of what Dove does is based off direct communication with consumers.

VI. Findings based on data from the media (Olivia) After rigorous research, coming across negative responses from the media pertaining to the Ad Makeover was very difficult. Instead, many media outlets highlighted the fact that, in total, 33 million women participated in the campaign and that Dove was generously over-bidding on Facebook ad space to place the Ad Makeover messages. Stories appeared in traditional media outlets like newspapers in both the news section, which spread awareness of the factual and measurable aspects of the campaign (such as the amount of women participating and their personal reactions), and in the opinion section, which almost always praised the brand for its extensive efforts to build-up women. Most often noted though was that the campaign was responsible for sparking a marked increase in awareness of the power of advertising to influence how we, as humans, view ourselves and how unhealthily the media portrays the â&#x20AC;&#x153;idealâ&#x20AC;? female body. News outlets such as the Huffington Post, think with Google, The Best of Global Digital Marketing, and PR Newswire all posted stories at some point in the course of the Ad Makeover on their online servers, whether those appeared as objective news pieces or editorials. Other outlets, such as Feelgood Style and The Gloss, which are lifestyle publications predominantly read by women, reported on the campaign as well. From the research that we completed, we found that several major news outlets reported on the Ad Makeover at three major times: 1) the launch of the initial campaign, 2) the completion of the initial campaign, and 3) the re-launch of the campaign in 19 more countries in 2013. The first two of these time frames apply to the length

of the campaign with which this case is specifically dealing. Major outlets would often post a single story during these phases. Lifestyle blogs would report on the campaign more sporadically than these more traditional news outlets. In the stories it published in the aftermath of the campaign, the media framed Dove’s Ad Makeover as incredibly encouraging to all women in need of a self-esteem boost as well as inspiringly progressive. In a commentary about the new ads from the Huffington Post, writers said “Instead of targeting your insecurities, the messages include ‘The perfect bum is the one you’re sitting on,’ for example, or ‘When it comes to your body, love the one you’re with.’ Our favorite: ‘Think of your cups as half full.’” The encouraging aspect of this frame is also reinforced by PR Newswire’s discussion about the way that social media can spread feelings and movements. It was reported, “ Women can see the ripple effect their beauty message has had across the nation on Facebook. The Dove® Ad Makeover program has already reached more than 33 million women.” In terms of the campaign’s progressive nature, Feelgood Style writer Maria Raffaelle noted that, “Pushing back against these types of ads is the only way that the messages and advertisements will ever be changed.” The media also often framed Dove’s campaign as altruistic and generous when discussing the over-bidding required to purchase sufficient ad space on Facebook. PR Newswire reported upon the campaign’s strategies in an understandable way by saying “Dove® is using auction-style bidding systems used to purchase ads on many online sites to increase the number of positive messages women see.” These frames match (and sometimes go beyond) the message that Dove was attempting to send to its audience. That all women should have the power to control how society talks about body image and that empowerment is an issue about which Dove is very passionate clearly came

across in the frames of the media. Some media went beyond matching these points too, praising Dove’s efforts for reasons beyond empowerment and recognizing Dove for showing the world about the potentially negative influence of advertising.

VII. Findings based on data from the audience/publics (Tanya) The types of materials we found from Dove’s audience consist of the public’s opinions and thoughts regarding the campaign. This feedback appeared in the form of popular social media outlets resulting in a plethora of tweets, Instagram captions, Facebook comments, and comments on blogs/websites. In general, the public commented on the campaign rather frequently. With the extensive user realms that social media outlets like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are comprised of, this is not surprising. However, a pattern can be identified that shows the greatest number of comments and feedback provided took place during the time of the campaign’s initial launch, April 2012, due to its high relevance. Because the campaign touched on a topic as widely accepted and encouraged as body positivity, the frames the audience used to provide feedback are almost entirely positive and reveal the public’s collective appreciation, support, and inspiration. One significant frame is recognition of the campaign’s value, exemplified through a comment on an informative Viral Blog article titled “Replace Bad Ads With Dove’s Ad Makeover” that read, “Great idea. I like their concept and how they are trying to help women feel better about themselves instead of hyping the so-called ‘hollywood perfect body.’” Another frame we noticed was the uplifting and personal impact of the campaign, such as Hannah Jefferson’s Facebook comment, “Glad to see a thin woman in your ad for once. Your ads with bigger women really help me see what it’s like to feel my body isn’t worth loving. Good approach.”

Another prevalent frame publics used to report on the Ad Makeover was being impressed with the campaign’s admirable efforts. For instance, Heidi Browning tweeted, “Dove Ad Makeover campaign is simply genius in their mission to help every woman feel beautiful,” and Patti Sellman tweeted, “Dove’s ‘Ad Makeover campaign’ empowering women to override ‘negative image ads’-- bravo!” These statements commending Dove for its tangible attempt at addressing an important issue were just two examples of feedback that emerged after the campaign’s launch expressing genuine praise and impression. A fourth frame used by the audience is their support of the campaign’s cause. For some, they even went as far as to promote the Ad Makeover on their own social media, such as one Instagram user who posted a photo of an Ad Makeover promotion on their personal account with the caption, “Change the way you see beauty. Join Dove on their mission to make every woman in the world feel more beautiful. Happy International Women’s Day to all the amazing women out there! #DoveCampaign #AdMakeover #Inspiration.” A frame of being inspired by the campaign’s message, specifically enough to spark action, was also identified when analyzing audience data. Megan Hunt’s tweet reading, “The Dove Ad Makeover: I can’t wait to add this to my Facebook!” is an example of public inspiration resulting in an answered call to action. As far as frames with a less positive approach, the only somewhat negative feedback we were able to find is a tweet by Sheila Bergeron, remarking, “I know this is supposed to be empowering, but I’m finding it sort of creepy. #DovesAdMakeover.” Nevertheless, the overall public opinion of the campaign was overwhelmingly positive. In comparison to Dove’s main message, the audience frames are very similar and are very much in accordance with said message. With the campaign, Dove aimed to promote confidence and high self-esteem, both of which are positive attributes that align with the positive frames

determined by the audience. Additionally, multiple frames we identified involve the public’s support and inspiration, inferring their likely participation in the campaign consisting of promoting body positivity among women.

VIII. SWOT (Olivia & Tanya) Overall, we view the Ad Makeover as a very successful campaign. A specific strength that allowed for this success was Dove’s choice to use social-media as a platform for the campaign. Not only did the use of social media allow for the “ripple effect” in the spreading of messages (e.g. one person shares with five others, each of those others share with five more, and so on), but it allowed users to access materials from a variety of devices: phone, tablets, laptops, etc. An additional strength of the campaign that benefitted the Dove brand as a whole was that on each positive advertisement that replaced a negative one, the Dove logo appeared. One could not read the feel-good message without seeing that Dove was essentially the entity that put it there. A final aspect of the Ad Makeover that served as a strength for Dove is that the message they were promoting, that all women should have the power to control how society talks about body image, is not something that is largely controversial. Very few people would publicly come forward and disagree or speak negatively of messages intended to build self-esteem. (Olivia) Even though the campaign was very successful in our eyes, we did find some weaknesses that may have prevented the campaign from reaching its highest potential. The first of these is that, initially, the campaign was only released in two countries. While this initial launch could be viewed as a test of effectiveness with a smaller audience, the fact that social media was the main platform likely would have helped the campaign spread in other countries without much more effort on behalf of the brand. The use of social media however is somewhat a weakness as well, in the idea that women without Facebook pages had no way of accessing the campaign or

viewing any of Dove’s messages. A final weakness of the campaign, somewhat smaller than the others, is that the it does not promote any specific products. Brand promotion is extremely important, but it may have been in Dove’s favor to allude to a few of their products in the campaign as well. (Olivia) We believe the Ad Makeover campaign resulted in many opportunities for Dove as brand and company. To begin, the overall success of the campaign and positive perception from the audience provided Dove the opportunity to gain more exposure. Users of the Ad Makeover could share the advertisement they created with their Facebook friends, which would then appear on others’ timelines, creating a ripple effect of exposure stemming from the initial user. Therefore, the very nature of the campaign ensured exposure of the Dove brand to be extended to a larger pool of potential participants. Furthermore, the enhanced exposure and media attention insinuated by the campaign created the opportunity for Dove to increase sales and improve revenue, because ideally the campaign’s success would result in more consumers choosing and purchasing Dove products. In addition, the campaign helped differentiate Dove from other similar brands and therefore created an opportunity for the company to strengthen its position in in the minds of customers. Lastly and most importantly, the Ad Makeover gave Dove the opportunity to have a positive and life-changing impact on women. (Tanya) There were not many threats to the campaign at the time of its launch and promotion. As discussed, body positivity and exploitation of negative advertising are not ideas that are frowned upon by many, so from the beginning there was not a strong likelihood of the campaign failing due to the non-controversial topics it targeted. One threat could have been the existence of similar self-esteem boosting campaigns of other companies targeting the same audience, creating competition for Dove. However, in 2012 the concept of “real” and/or anti-media perpetuated

ideas of beauty, as well as brand adoption of these platforms, were not as popular or common as they currently are. Therefore, we do not think this possibility would have been a realistic or particularly dangerous threat to the campaign, as we feel its promotion was unique and perhaps even progressive. (Tanya)

IX. Evaluation (Sam) Overall, the campaign proved to be incredibly effective in its efforts to promote body positivity and self-esteem in women. The website for the Ad Makeover campaign noted, “A huge 71% of women we spoke to after the Dove Ad Makeover said that they felt more beautiful as a result of the campaign: an incredible step towards enabling women everywhere to realise [sic] their full beauty potential” (Dove Ad Makeover). Another indication of the campaign’s success was its relaunch in 2013 to 19 additional countries. The campaign received virtually no critical reception during the timeframe we researched. Furthermore, in 2012 Dove received a number of awards from the Jay Chiat Awards For Strategic Excellence in Advertising. Its Ad Makeover campaign received a silver award for creative technology and a gold award for social media strategy (4A's Announces 2012 Winners, 2012). Additionally, in the first two weeks of the campaign’s launch, 171 million potentially negative Facebook ads were replaced by body positive ads created through Dove’s Ad Makeover application. By the end of the campaign’s initial launch, it had received 253 million free media impressions and reached approximately 29 million women. Furthermore, Dove’s reach on Facebook increased by 87 percent during our timeframe (4A's Announces 2012 Winners, 2012). We think it was wise of Dove to test their Ad Makeover sub-campaign in two countries before rolling it out globally. Its initial success in Australia and Brazil correctly indicated that it would be successful on a larger scale.

X. Conclusion (Sam) At the beginning of this case study, we sought to answer the strategic communication question, â&#x20AC;&#x153;How did Dove promote body positivity and self-esteem in women with its Ad Makeover campaign from April to December 2012?â&#x20AC;? We conclude that Dove did effectively promote body positivity and self-esteem in women through its Ad Makeover campaign. More specifically, Dove gave women the opportunity to take control and change the negative and body shaming messaging they usually see on Facebook advertising. There are very few things Dove could or should have done differently because it was so successful the way it was executed. However, the campaign could have increased its use of media. Facebook was the only medium on which Ad Makeover was available. The campaign could have broadened its reach and overall impact by expanding to other social media including Twitter and Instagram. Additionally, it could have taken advantage of other media such as print, television, and radio. There are a number of lessons other beauty product companies and organizations can learn from the Dove Ad Makeover sub-campaign. One of the primary takeaways is that it is not necessary to objectify or body shame women in order to successfully promote a brand. In fact, because Dove was one of the first beauty product companies to launch a campaign like this, its use of empowerment as a promotional tool was arguably more successful than other, more conventional tactics. Because the campaign was so large and well-known, there was not an abundance of limitations to our case study. The overwhelming majority of consumers received the campaign favorably, so we found little to no criticism of the campaign. Another potential limitation to our

research is that Ad Makeover was a sub-campaign of the larger Real Beauty Campaign. Because of this, there was considerably less information available focusing solely on Dove Ad Makeover.

XI. References 4A's Announces 2012 Winners of Jay Chiat Awards For Strategic Excellence in Advertising. (2012, October 26). Retrieved April 28, 2016, from http://www.aaaa.org/news/press/pages/102612_winnners_jaychiatawards.aspx Brand, D. (n.d.). The Dove Ad Makeover. Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/974198/22378621/1365190674357/silver_ogilvylon on_DoveAdMakeover_UnlockingSocialDove.pdf? token=bSiWGXDVLEo7IcYDahNrNLaf4ag= Dove Ad Makeover. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2016, from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/campaigns/dove-dove-ad-makeover.html Dove® Takes On Advertising That Can Negatively Impact Self-Esteem And Gives American Women The Power To Pay Positive Beauty Messaging Forward. (2013, March 8). Retrieved April 29, 2016, from

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dove-takes on-advertising-that-can-negatively-impact-self-esteem-and-gives-american-women-the power-to-pay-positive-beauty-messaging-forward-196285151.html Dove ‘The Ad Makeover’ Campaign Targets Negative Advertising. (2012, April 24). Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/dove-the-admakeover_n_1446250.html Dubecky, M. (n.d.). These 6 Brands Are Embracing What Real Bodies Look Like-And We're

Loving Every Second. Retrieved April 24, 2016, from http://bust.com/style/13791-these 6-brands-are-embracing-what-real-bodies-look-like-and-we-re-loving-every-second.html Munter, M. (n.d.). Case study: Dove’s ‘Ad Makeover’ brings positive ad messages (and overbidding) to Facebook. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.bestmarketing.eu/dove-ad-makeover-case-study/ Raffaelle, M. (n.d.). Dove's Ad Makeover Encourages Body Positivity Through Advertisements. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://feelgoodstyle.com/2012/04/25/feelgood-quickiedoves-ad-makeover-replaces-body-negative-advertisements/