Week 2 Analysis: Brands & The Human Connection/Curating 3
After watching the Dove video Dove Real Beauty Sketches | You’re more beautiful than you think, I felt a direct connection with the video as I am a part of the target market that Dove is reaching through this ad. It is clear that they are reaching out to women between the ages of 20 and 50 from varied races, most likely in the US. It is clear that women of all ages and backgrounds have been impacted with the portrayal that media makes of ideal beauty and it is a very good way to make a strong emotional connection through seeing other women experiencing feelings that are all too familiar to us and how our perception has been warped to not only see our flaws, but to blow them out of proportion.
Dove is known for having always worked and promoted the idea of real beauty with their products and this ad is a perfect example of Dove not necessarily placing their products in the video but appealing through emotions and with a social experiment that women can relate to no matter where they come from. Given that the personal care products made by dove are made to just help women enhance and take care of their beauty, this video makes that point through the story that they are telling of the women taking part of the experiment.
Through the integration of women of different cultural backgrounds, Dove is reaching out to a very diverse audience and doing so without alienating women due to their race or skin colour. They also do this by including women from a different range of ages as it allows women to see that these issues are not limited to a specific generation. The commercial is very engaging and the use of the camera shots help with the narrative. while the women where describing themselves, the camera would pan into the feature that they where describing showing, then showing the feature in the drawing giving an immediate contrast of how different they were. Silence is also very important, especially when the side-by-side portraits are revealed to each women, it shows how speechless they become when they see how critical they are of themselves and it conveys that emotion to the audience.
Other visual elements that are not as obvious that also help generate a implicit relation to the actual brand is the colour and simplicity of the place where the video was shot. The fact that white is a predominant colour in the room, that has a meaning of cleanliness in the western world and is also the colour of doves, is a mod to the brand without needing to use any product or logo to do so. It is also important to note how important the close up shots, especially of the eyes of both the women being drown and the people questioned for the second sketch as is deepens a connection with them, as to see the contrast between the nervousness and uncomfortable eyes of the women and a more relaxed and happy expression of the other’s when giving the descriptions.
Because of the story and how genuine it comes across as, not only through learning about each women and their struggles with body image, it becomes very relatable and women can see themselves in the same position. As one of the women states “We spend a lot of time as women analyzing and trying to fix the things that aren’t quite right…”, not only is she talking about a topic relevant to women but she states we as women, making sure that she is not limiting the experience to herself but recognises how other’s go through it too. This is an ad that does not feel as such but more as a reminder to women that they are in fact beautiful, which is something that why want to know.
Though the years it ha become clear how content has become very easy to create and share through just a few clicks. Things like memes and videos that go viral tend to share certain elements and one that is quite recurring is emotional connection. When a group of people can relate to something, no matter if it is a song, an image, a meme or a video, it will be shared among those people and their social circle like it was the case of this video. The more people can relate to something, while it still feels like something real and genuine, the more bigger and long lasting impact it will have.