Popular feminism and Dove’s 2022 self-esteem project

Feminism is a social-political movement and ideology that aim to define and establish both genders’ political, economic, and personal equality. Feminism movements include fighting against gender stereotypes, strict beauty standards on female, and male gazes, and improving females’ professional, educational, and personal opportunities. Nowadays, feminism is incredibly popular for commercial use, especially in beauty and self-care brands. As Banet-Weiser said, you can see there is an expression of feminism everywhere, whether on a t-shirt, in a movie, on social media, or in a song. The Dove Self-Esteem Project produced “The Real Cost of Beauty Ideals” report, the most comprehensive assessment ever conducted on the pervasive and damaging impacts of beauty standards on the American economy and society. The report provides overwhelming evidence that body dissatisfaction and appearance-based discrimination are multi-billion-dollar public health crisis that costs women and girls health, happiness, and sometimes their lives. Dove’s campaigns conduct in the form of showing different girls talking about their stories of being body shamed or criticized for appearance. It shows that beauty bias could leave inevitable harm to the younger generation and the campaign aims to break down beauty stereotypes and keep the young away from anxieties, enabling a diverse standard of beauty and making customers love themselves.

Ideas and values that are communicated in Dove’s real cost beauty project

“Appearance hate is the real toxic influence.” In April 2022, Dove came out with a new film on the influence of beauty advice on social media that affect self-esteem, which triggers deep thoughts on the impacts of social media influencers and beauty judgment. In Dove’s film, it uses AI technology to change mothers’ faces and make them talk about the beauty advice that their daughters could hear online every single day. The effect came out with great shock, the advice that seems to be normal and pervasive in a celebrity’s mouth sounds incredibly ridiculous when it came out from a mother’s mouth. A mother will never give their daughter toxic beauty advice, but it become normalized all over the world. It needs to be changed and self-esteem education should be addressed.

This film perfectly addressed Dove’s brand values which are body positivity and making beauty a source of confidence instead of anxiety. Dove suggests that beauty should be diverse, no matter what is your age, color, size, and background, customers should be proud of their bodies. One highlight is that Dove held these values before they were mainstream and left customers an impression to believe in the brand. Its marketing campaign and proactive customer-centered values significantly improve customers’ loyalty and build up trust between the brand and consumers. The film conveys the idea that matches Dove’s values well, which commits to caring about all women of all ages, redefining beauty standards, and portraying women in real life.

Positive brand image contributes to Dove’s commercial interest

The economic cost of appearance-based discrimination was up to $501.3 billion in 2019. The total spending on health services due to body dissatisfaction was estimated to be $9 billion. This is equivalent to a cost of $204 per person with body dissatisfaction. It can seem that customers have strong purchasing power and willingness to spend money investing in their appearance. The inclusive brand value of including customers from all ages and backgrounds has no doubt opened a wider market for Dove and built up a positive brand image. In this case, embracing feminism and different social issues is the key to Dove’s commercial success.