Dove starts body positivity campaign featuring women from diverse backgrounds

Real beauty means real women. That’s been the driving ethos behind Unilever-owned Dove for 60 years. Now the brand is furthering its mission of spreading body positivity with the Dove #RealBeauty Pledge, a campaign featuring real women shot by photographer Mario Testino and a commitment to body positivity.

“I think the idea of beauty in all humans is in our minds at the moment, from politics to culture to human rights,” Testino said when defining what beauty means to him. “I worked closely with Dove and my team in identifying women from around the world whose stories were unique, intriguing and meant something.”

The photo campaign includes 32 women ranging in age from 11 to 71 from more than 15 countries, including Iran, Indonesia, Germany and Brazil. Along with their portraits, each woman described what beauty means to them and how they’ve overcome any insecurities.

“Usually when we make a campaign we’re making it for one market or a certain region and this one was a truly global campaign, so we had the whole world of beauty to pick from,” said Sophie Galvani, global vice president at Dove. “It was really fun to look around and find just totally diverse beauty and also get the stories of these women as well because they’ve been truly inspirational.”

Dove’s #RealBeauty pledge consists of three vows: featuring real women, no digital distortion in its campaigns and building body confidence and self-esteem. The pledge goes along with Dove’s Self-Esteem Project, which will continue to educate young women to realize their full potential.

“Dove is very much about championing all different types of beauty,” Galvani continued. “[We’re] all about putting a picture up and saying we want to inspire you to bring out the best in you to make yourself look like the best version of yourself.”

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