Dove Evolution of Beauty Campaign; DRAFT

DIGITAL MEDIA ARTIFACT; DOVE EVOLUTION OF BEAUTY CAMPAIGN

The digital media artifact I chose to analyze is a video I saw on YouTube by the beauty brand, Dove. In 2004 they launched this campaign they call the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Their goal is to encourage confidence and self-esteem in women, instead of anxiety in the way many get about their looks. Currently, 80 percent of women in the U.S. are dissatisfied with their appearance, and more than 10 million are suffering from eating disorders. Also posted in this article, according to Teen Magazine, 50 to 70 percent of normal-weight girls think they are overweight. (Carolyn Coker Ross, 2012) Dove found these statistics sickening and decided to start a movement towards inspiring women.

            This video can be defined as digital media because this type of media refers to audio, video, and photo content that has been digitally compressed (encoded). After digital media is encoded, it can be easily manipulated, shared and played by computers and over networks. This video campaign, created by Dove is posted on YouTube, and plays in the commercial slot before you can view your desired video content. This is the way I was first exposed to this interesting campaign, but soon after in my photography class, our teacher had inserted a link to this video on YouTube into her lecture slides so she could show us as we came up upon the subject in the lecture. You can see in these types of examples how quickly and easily information can spread in digital format.

            I think Dove had a really interesting point in creating their Evolution of Beauty Campaign. The statistics around about women and their body image in society today is at unheard of levels compared to years in the past. According to an interesting piece I found online, 25 years ago, the average model weighed only 8 percent less than the average American woman. Today, models are weighing in around 23 percent less than the average woman. (Barnard/Columbia, 1992) These facts started hitting home and Dove got together and made a pact to use real women instead of professional models for their advertising needs. Their work really stood out  because that is something you do not see. With their point blank evolution of beauty video they wanted one thing, and that was to drive home the point that every image you see in magazines, billboards, and commercials is photo shopped to achieve higher cheekbones, fuller lips, gorgeous hair, etc. and here we are revolving our expectations on these images of woman in shapes that are completely unrealistic.  

            This video is all over YouTube, and is quite popular because this whole Photoshop and re-touching controversy is so big these days. Not only will it be the commercial you have to watch before watching your chosen video, you can often see a small shot of it on the recommended videos to the right of the streaming video. You do not have to have any type of account on YouTube to view this, you can be a basic browser and run into it as well. You simply have to have some type of device to get on the internet, and an internet connection and you have the opportunity to see this video.

            I think it’s interesting how this video is only on YouTube, and that is probably the most digitized site you could be on. It’s full of digital images and video clips, and everything else in the digital media world. The site itself is exceptionally easy to use, and easily accessible to anyone with interest.