After completing worldwide research, Dove found that few women view themselves as beautiful. Over 12 years ago Dove created a commercial called Evolution to target advertisements, one of the top contributors to poor self image at the time. This commercial shocked an overwhelming number of viewers who contributed to the video going viral. Evolution exposed the unrecognizable contrast of how a model went from looking completely natural to the photoshopped, highly made up advertisement. People had undeniable evidence that the model shown in the end of the campaign had an unattainable, impossibly unnatural appearance. The commercial struck their viewers by highlighting that heavy makeup and photoshop is utilized in many campaigns creating a false view of “beauty”.
I recently came across this commercial again. At first thought, I was still captured and horrified by the transformation of real, natural beauty to the augmented, unachievable perception. However, after watching this video over several times, a new disturbing thought came to me besides my original disgust of how many companies think that it is ok to alter not only models but also viewers’ understanding of what beauty is. In addition, I was disturbed by realizing that despite the fact that the commercial caused such a shock and is still being shared today, there are still countless advertisements that photoshop their models. Even worse, non-technically advanced individuals can edit their own photos with the help of applications.
I have always looked at the Dove commercial as inspiring change; however, I wonder now if the impact of the commercial was as great as people credited it to be. How come today this problem has grown? How can we stop it? Is it too late? I only have one question left to ask, would you describe yourself as beautiful?
Olivia Regalia
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