Dove’s latest body confidence campaign: uniting the industry behind healthy messages
The new UK pledge campaign is the latest in the Unilever-owned brand’s efforts to support the work of Be Real, a national movement of organisations, business, charities and individuals that aims to change attitudes to body image, promote wellbeing and help everyone feel confident in how they look.
The Body Image Pledge calls on the advertising, fashion, music and media industries across the UK to pledge to transform the way they portray body image and to reflect realty, diversity and healthy role models.
It follows parent company Unilever’s recent global pledge to remove stereotypes from its advertising, and suggests the company is keen to lead the industry on this front.
Body confidence: the research
The move to put its weight behind the pledge follows recent research by Dove into attitudes in the UK towards body image. According to the company, 7 in 10 women and 6 in 10 girls in the UK think the media and advertisers set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can’t ever achieve.
Indeed, the brand found that 8 in 10 British women and girls wish the media did a better job of portraying females with a diverse physical appearance, age, race, shape and size.
The Be Real Body Image Pledge is already backed by retailers like Superdrug and New Look, as well as organisations including the Government Equalities Office and Facebook.
Increasing demand from younger consumers, like Millennials, for brands with clear ethical stances is driving the rise in socially conscious brand initiatives in beauty.
Why make the pledge?
“By signing up to the pledge, Dove promises to continue to show reality and diversity in all its images,” the company explains.
“We promise to continue showing women’s bodies that are healthy and realistic without adding any pressure to conform.”
