Last Updated on April 16, 2024 by Silvy
Dove Challenges AI Beauty Standards in New Campaign, “The Dove Code”
Dove, the personal care brand known for celebrating “real women” in its advertising, is taking a stand against unrealistic beauty portrayals in the digital age.
Their new campaign, “The Dove Code,” tackles the issue of artificial intelligence (AI) tools generating images that perpetuate narrow beauty standards.
Dove’s commitment to real beauty is well-established. They’ve consistently featured women of diverse shapes, sizes, and backgrounds in their campaigns for years.
This dedication continues with “The Dove Code,” which follows a global report revealing that a significant portion of women (one-third) feel pressure to alter their appearance based on online portrayals, even when they recognize the images are manipulated or AI-generated.
The campaign’s creative approach showcases the contrasting results of AI technology. It highlights how prompts like “gorgeous woman” or “perfect woman” generate images that reinforce a homogenized beauty ideal – typically featuring blonde hair and white, tanned skin. In contrast, adding “according to Dove Real Beauty” to the prompts produces a more diverse, inclusive, and realistic set of images.
“For years, AI-generated imagery has presented a very limited view of beauty,” says Brisa Vicente, Soko partner and co-CEO. “Their portrayals are biased, favoring a specific type of woman. However, when we included ‘according to Dove Real Beauty campaign’ in our prompts, the results were dramatically different. This demonstrates the lasting impact of Dove’s commitment to real beauty – it’s a code that’s embedded within AI thanks to their two decades of advocacy.”
The campaign film, produced by Saigon and directed by Juliana Curi, utilizes partnerships with The Mill, Diprod, Big Sync Music, and HEFTY. Media.Monks. Additionally, they’ve developed “prompt guidelines” to empower individuals using generative AI to create images that reflect Dove’s Real Beauty philosophy.
Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” has garnered consistent recognition at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
More importantly, it’s fundamentally changed the way women are portrayed in advertising. This dedication to real beauty has also translated to success – Dove’s global sales have grown significantly since the campaign’s launch.
