#Mandela100: Dove goes beyond skin-deep beauty with No Digital Distortion Mark

Underneath 2018’s selfie culture, where adding filters and enhancing features in photos becomes second nature, there’s a yearning to get back to basics, to what’s natural and real and true.

That’s why there’s been a rise of celebrities themselves getting upset at the way they’ve been photoshopped on magazine covers and in advertising for beauty and skincare brands.

It’s more than just a surface-level beauty and identity problem. It goes beyond skin-deep across the media and advertising industry and doesn’t do the brands any favours.

Beauty by numbers

Luckily, that’s now coming to a stop, one brand at a time. Launching in July, Dove’s ‘No Digital Distortion Mark’ is part of its promise to keep its beauty imagery filter-free.

This forms part of the brand’s 14-year-old self-esteem project and three-part Real Beauty Pledge of last year, where they vow to:

1. always feature real women of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, and hair colours, types or styles – never models – and to
2. portray them as they are in real-life, as approved by the women and not retouched or digitally distorted, thereby
3. helping the next generation of girls build body confidence and self-esteem.

Retouching real beauty ideals

Design Taxi explains that the new watermark is the result of a study that revealed that 77% of women believe all media photos they come across have been retouched.

Here, Sphelele Mjadu, senior public relations manager at Unilever Beauty and Personal Care for Africa, explains how the launch of the Dove ‘No Digital Distortion Mark’ is yet another step to ensure beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety, as well as how this ties in with findings from the 2016 Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report

By 2 January 2019, the Mark will be incorporated into all static imagery showcasing women, across print, digital and social media and will represent that the image is not distorted. Dove will be held accountable to only show accurate and genuine portrayals of women, showing them as they are in real life.

The ambition of the Mark is to help women and girls navigate the media landscape, letting them know that the image they see has not been digitally distorted to fit beauty ideals and stereotypes.

The Dove Self-Esteem Project curriculum provides young people with the tools to help build confidence. One element of this is education on how to counter the negative influence of media and become more aware and critical of what they see. The Mark will take this further and provide an identifier that will take the guesswork out of consuming media, while also encouraging other brands to take action.

In South Africa specifically, 65% of women and 72% of girls wish the media did a better job of portraying women with diverse physical appearance, and of varying age, race, shape and size.

The Dove ‘No Digital Distortion Mark’ joins the Self-Esteem Project tools and is a stamp to let everyone know that Dove is firmly committed to not digitally distorting images.

The Mark means we do not misrepresent skin, hair or eye colour, fill in gaps in hair, remove wrinkles, whiten teeth, remove moles, freckles, scars, tattoos and stretch marks, to name a few. So the women included are 100% as you would see them in real life, and 100% beautiful just as they are.

The Dove Self-Esteem Project curriculum provides young people with the tools to help build confidence. For over 10 years, it has reached more than 29 million young people around the world with body confidence and self-esteem education, with the goal to reach 40 million young people around the world by 2020.

It is driving growth through brands with purpose, taking out costs from their business, reducing risks and helping them build trust.

Seven years ago, Unilever launched the USLP to demonstrate to the world that a corporate can create value with human values at its core. Economic development, through responsible business, is the best way to bring people out of poverty and address social issues.

The company has expanded its range of 'Sustainable Living' products, increasing the number of brands that have been awarded the designation from 18 to 26 last year.

USLP is made up of three big goals, supported by targets that span across Unilever’s social, economic and environmental performance across the value chain. These three goals are:

1. Improve the health and well-being of more than one billion people
2. Decouple their environmental footprint from their growth
3. Enhance the livelihoods of millions of people

As a responsible corporate citizen, Unilever believes in making a positive difference, not only to those who use its products but also to the communities in which it operates. The company ensures that its sustainability programmes extend further than what’s good for the company and always considers what’s good for all involved.

Exactly the type of corporate mindset the world needs right now. Visit dove.com/self-esteem for more on the Dove Self-Esteem Project.

Read more