magazine issue 2 2014 / Issue 19

The good, the bad, and the ugly of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

• written by Angela Celebre & Ashley Waggoner Denton
• edited by Rosanna Guadagno & Reine van der Wal

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty has been called a lot of things, from a “game changer” and “a breath of fresh air”, to “hypocritical”, “sexist”, and “sneaky”. So why has the campaign, whose major innovation was to use ads that featured real women rather than airbrushed models or celebrity spokespersons, sparked so much controversy? Taking a social psychological perspective, this article attempts to address the good, the bad, and possibly even the ugly side of Dove’s Campaign for... / more