Groundswell Chapter 10: The Evolution of Dove
In chapter 10 of “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies”, authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff discuss the release of Dove’s initially groundbreaking “campaign for real beauty”. According to Li and Bernoff, when Unilever (Dove’s parent company) first created these commercials in 2003, “they took a big risk with the message, going against the industry norm of using young, slender, perfect models and instead featuring everyday, average women. . . it worked- people were definitely talking about the ad campaign and Dove” (200). Initially, the ads featured only images of women like the one below: After these ads created a buzz within the groundswell, Dove decided to take the messaging a step further. They created a video entitled “Evolution” in 2005, which exposed many of the photoshopping, airbrushing, and makeup techniques used in traditional advertisements. The video was successful ...