We’re all familiar with Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty but did you know the campaign is reaching its 10-year birthday? Since 2004, Dove has been marketing to women to celebrate their natural beauty.

With the recent success of their latest advertisement, Dove has men and women alike discussing the perceptions of beauty. Through forensic sketches, the ad revealed that we are our own worst critics and people don’t usually see the supposed flaws we do.

Dove also launched an ad in March combatting the overuse of Photoshop on women in advertisements. This involved disguising an “undo-Photoshop” tool as a “skin brightening” tool. The tool reversed all editing and stamped a demand that editors not manipulate our perceptions of beauty. Although it was not as successful as the women sketches ad, we can see Dove’s message of embracing natural beauty throughout the entire campaign.

Marketing to women has been a major focus of Dove's ad campaign but what else is it bringing up? Are women realizing that beauty and happiness are not defined by physical attributes? Or is all this talk about being beautiful refocusing our attention on beauty?

A Tumblr response to the viral women sketches video looks at the message through a different lens. Jazz Brice felt uneasy about the ad’s focus on physical beauty over inner beauty. A quote from the Dove ad video said that she should feel grateful for her natural beauty and how it’s critical to her life choices and relationships. Whether or not she meant her physical beauty or her inner beauty is left to be discussed.

One thing is for sure – Dove has us talking about the power of media and society’s view on women and beauty.

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.