Commercial Campaign Analysis

For many decades, the beauty industry as well as the media have portrayed the beauty of women as something completely unreal. Almost every woman in magazine or in advertising has been photoshopped to show this unreal beauty. This problem continued to happen until one brand decided to stand out and do something different. That brand is Dove, an American personal care company owned by Unilever (Dove, 2020). Dove launched its revolution with the Dove’s Real Beauty campaign and it became very successful. The Dove’s Real Beauty campaign overcame many competitors such as Old Spice, Budweiser, and UNICEF’s 2007 Tap Project to become the number one campaign of the 21st Century by Advertising Age (AdAge, n.d). This Commercial Campaign Analysis paper will focus on a specific ad in the campaign, the Real Beauty Sketches video ad, to discuss and analyze the effectiveness of the ad as well as the campaign. The Real Beauty Sketches video ad used effectively the rhetorical method and the integrated marketing method to become successful.

The Real Beauty Sketches is an advertising video in which FBI-trained forensic artist Gil Zamora drew portraits of women based on their description from behind a curtain (Dove US, 2013). Then, a random stranger was asked to describe the same woman to Gil, to see how their description would differ (Dove US, 2013). The result showed two completely different portraits. The portrait based on the stranger’s description was more beautiful and happier than the first portrait. The message that the video ad wanted to deliver to the audiences was that you are more beautiful than you think. The target audience of this video ad was millions of women around the world who don’t see their own beauty. In the Real Beauty Sketches video ad, the audiences could notice that the video was filmed with a cinematography style by looking at its aesthetic. The video used the natural daylight, which was from the windows all around the room. Most of the scenes were filmed by handheld shots, which makes the video a natural feeling because the viewers feel that they are watching it in person. The video ad also used different angles of shots such as pans and tilts. Close up shots were also used in order to reinforce the connection between the viewers and the women in the ad. Wide shots were also used in order to show the room with full of portraits to the viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE

The ad video “Real Beauty Sketches” is effective because it uses pathos, ethos, and logos to deliver its message to the audience. In the video, pathos is used when the forensic artist shows the individuals the two portraits pointing out how they are harsh on themselves while other people see them as beautiful. The audiences feel that they are more confident, more beautiful and happier because this scene gives the audiences a positive feeling of being appreciated by Dove. Moreover, the scene when a woman got emotional upon seeing her portrait drawn by a different person also creates emotion for the audiences. In the video, logos is used when the forensic artist began to ask questions and sketch women he had never seen from behind the curtain. The scene shows how we see ourselves negatively and how other people see us positively. The ad shows the logos of self-awareness and self-description inside us. Last but not least, Dove used ethos by using Gil Zamora, a FBI-trained reputable artist, to give authenticity and credibility to their advertisement. Dove also used real women of all ages in the ad to show that these issues are happening through all ages.

The Dove’s Real Beauty campaign in general as well as the Real Beauty Sketches advertising video in particular became very successful not only because of their use of pathos, ethos, and logos, but also because of the integrated marketing immersed within them. The aim of the Dove’s Real Beauty campaign is to celebrate the natural beauty of all women around the world and to encourage them to be more confident, more comfortable and happier with themselves. This main message has been consistently mentioned in various advertising videos and campaigns of Dove in the last 10-15 years. Dove’s ads and campaigns have not promoted any actual product but they promoted a new social change instead, where they encouraged women to be themselves because they are more beautiful than they think. This unified message was delivered throughout a variety of communication means including “TV commercials, magazine spreads, talk shows, and a worldwide conversation via the Internet” (Celebre & Denton, 2014). Dove also took advantage of marketing on YouTube with the result being “more than 114 million views and uploaded in 25 languages” for the Real Beauty Sketches (Murphy, 2013). The campaign has won lots of advertising awards and this helped Dove successfully increase their sales from $2.5 billion to $4 billion in its opening campaign year (Skene, 2014).

In conclusion, by effectively using the rhetorical method and the integrated marketing method, the Real Beauty Sketches advertising video in particular as well as the Dove’s Real Beauty campaign in general have become very successful. This ad video and the campaign affect people emotionally and make them feel more confident and happier which makes them become loyal customers of Dove. Dove also successfully created a social change about how we should view the beauty of women.