Unilever’s Dove brand continued its “campaign for real beauty” message with a new video ad that tested men’s real reactions to women… by hooking them up to heart monitors.
The challenge
The “Real Beauty Beats” ad, created by Portuguese agency Black Ship, takes the bold step of switching to the male gaze. This breaks with Dove’s previous convention of taking a female perspective.
The ad aimed to highlight women’s real beauty via a social experiment involved men being hooked up to heart monitors.
The solution
When shown images of conventionally attractive women you’d expect to see on the cover of a magazine, the men participating in the video evoke a cold and objective response.
However, when they see images of the females in their own lives, they are unable to conceal their emotions of happiness, which are visualised through their quick heart rates on the monitor.
Whether it’s a wife’s open smile or a mother’s wrinkles, this ad shows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not what mainstream media would have us believe.
The results
The ad has proved a success, garnering over 1.5 million views on YouTube within a month.
