CASE STUDY: How Dove instigated debate around beauty notions in China

Background

Many Chinese women devote themselves to the pursuit of unrealistic physical standards and feel depressed or anxious when they cannot attain society’s ideals of beauty.

Dove saw this cultural tension as an opportunity to bring awareness of its global core value of 'real beauty by real women' to China. The brand wanted to instigate a debate around the notion of beauty in China and to challenge Chinese society to rethink and broaden its understanding of beauty with this campaign.

Objectives

1. Spark a national dialogue with the Chinese public about the definition of female beauty;
2. Urge women to reflect and voice their thoughts on society’s standards of beauty and how it affects their own well-being;
3. Encourage women to live by their own definitions of personal beauty and to celebrate real beauty;
4. Brand Dove as a true ally to Chinese women that is both relevant and empowering.

Strategy

The campaign, themed 'Born Beautiful', took an artistic approach and was centered around women’s self-esteem issues in China. O&M Shanghai invited a Chinese female photographer and three Chinese female artists to hand-paint questions on pregnant women’s bellies to illustrate their concerns for their unborn daughters.

The striking questions that were painted include one (pictured) that reads, “I am a girl who is yet to breathe. If I grow up with A-cup breasts, will you tease me?”

Using Dove’s brand colour scheme of blue and gold, the contemporary and simple fonts were reminiscent of Chinese blue and white porcelain, which depicts beauty and flawlessness.

The series of three ads ran in print and outdoors. Ogilvy PR then took the conversation online with a corresponding social media campaign on Sina Weibo with the hashtag #女人生来美丽# (#WomenBornBeautiful#), which generated further buzz in the digital space.

The campaign ran from March to April 2013 across mainland China.

As the first skincare campaign in China to feature unborn daughters as the focal point, it encouraged women to express their views on personal beauty versus the often unrealistic images dictated by society.

Results

The 'Born Beautiful' Sina Weibo campaign generated more than 83 million impressions.

Online buzz around the hashtag saw more than 263,000 posts on the topic, with almost 10,000 Weibo users engaged in the discussion.

Campaign-relevant content on Dove’s official Sina Weibo handle was 10 times more popular than its non-campaign content.

As a result, the target audience felt this was a message important enough to share with a broader audience of women. Dove was perceived as a brand that is contemporary, dynamic, relevant, sympathetic and empowering for Chinese women.

There was no focus on actual purchases as Dove intended this to be a brand-awareness campaign.