Dove’s latest initiative #StopTheBeautyTest has thrown the spotlight on a relevant social issue of beauty standards in the marriage matchmaking process. Last month, the brand launched a digital film, sending out a message that we need to stop putting women through this unjust beauty test; and associated with influencers on social media to enable the message to reach a larger audience.
Conceptualised by Ogilvy India, the campaign highlights how a woman’s beauty is constantly judged through the marriage lens and how she is never beautiful enough. These judgements eventually label the woman as too short, too dark or too fat — taking a toll on their self-esteem and body confidence.
The brand said it wants to start and sustain a conversation on this important issue. Speaking on the topic, Priya Nair, Executive Director, HUL & VP, Beauty and Personal Care, South Asia, said, “In a country of 631 million women, it is unfortunate that there is such intense pressure to adhere to one definition of beauty. As owners of some of the largest beauty brands in the country, the onus to make beauty more positive and more inclusive is on us. Dove has always believed that beauty should be source of confidence, not anxiety. With #StopTheBeautyTest, we want to go one step forward in that direction.”
Though influencer marketing has become a crucial aspect of any campaign today, Dove India does not have an Instagram account and it has associated with influencers through collaborations with other platforms such as Grazia, Femina, Humans of Bombay, She The People, Be Beautiful and others. With this, the brand has a wide variety of influencers coming from different walks of life, sharing their personal stories of how they overcame society’s set standards of beauty. It has on board yoga instructor Natasha Noel, former Big Boss contestant Priya Malik, digital creator Sharanya Iyer, writer Tahira Kashyap, model Sakshi Sindwani among others. Each of the influencers in their posts speaks about the need to stop fitting into society’s definition of beauty— the core message of the campaign.
The choice of influencers is relevant here, as they often share content regarding body positivity, self-love and self-acceptance on their social media platforms. They also connect with the young generation, including women who are looking to get married and are constantly under society’s glare for not fitting into their definition of ‘beauty’.
This campaign captures real stories enacted by real women. The choice of influencers has made it an extension of the campaign as they are relatable and real individuals. By not signing up celebrities, the brand kept the campaign true to its spirit and relatable. These posts were not only shared by the influencers but also on handles of different platforms they are associated with, giving the message a much wider reach.
In her post, Tahira Kashyap writes a letter to her daughter, promising her ‘to stop the beauty test that is designed to make her fail’.
Sania Mirza shared her experience on Instagram of how people asked her parents not to allow her to play in the sun.
Natasha Noel, who often posts about body positivity, says, “It’s funny how women are expected to change themselves to fit in.”
According to data provided by influencer marketing agency Sheeko, the influencer-driven campaign reached more than a million people in a media value pegged around Rs 20 lakh.
Sheeko Brandscore graph of the brand’s performance on Instagram over one year:
Walking the talk on the campaign, Dove is partnering with leading matrimonial platforms to create awareness among consumers to not look at women as a commodity. It wants them to eliminate the use of stereotypical words, including ‘fair’ and ‘tall’ from their clients' advertisements. Dove will also help rewrite matrimonial ads free of beauty biases to drive a significant change in this direction.
To further the conversation, the digital film has been complemented with a lot of textual content in mainstream print media. They carried a front page ad in national dailies, urging people to take the pledge to #StopTheBeautyTest. They also placed their ad in the matrimonial section of national dailies highlighting the message.
In the past as well, Dove has done several path-breaking campaigns against the setting of unrealistic beauty standards and redefining beauty stereotypes. Their campaign advocating ‘real beauty’ was quite a game-changer. In 2018, as part of their #LetsBreakTheRulesOfBeauty campaign, they had undertaken several initiatives. While one asked young girls to choose a ‘beautiful’ face for a magazine feature, showing how girls are trained to understand beauty from a young age, another one asked if beauty can be defined by a hair colour.
In 2019 they battled hair stereotypes through their campaign #AapkeBaalAapkiMarzi, encouraging women to wear their hair as they like and not conform to the society’s preference for straight, long and black hair.
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