On Hollywood’s most star-studded night, Dove decided to let women everywhere know what true beauty was. The company aired a commercial on Oscars night highlighting the lack of self-esteem that women show on social media. Throwing out examples of tweets where women voiced dismay or even hatred at body image (most of the time directed at themselves, but often at others as well), the ad then announced their “Speak Beautiful” campaign.
Dove scoured the Twittersphere for negative tweets about appearance and responded to them with positive messages. They also urged women to tweet positive messages with the hashtag #speakbeautiful. The result was nothing short of amazing—within a few hours, hundreds of tweets flooded their account, and the most surprising part was that most of them were positive, with women choosing to highlight what they liked about themselves.
@notmegawattage Building self-esteem takes time. What’s one thing you love about yourself? If we #SpeakBeautiful, we can feel it too.
— Dove (@Dove) February 24, 2015
@Pinabuttacupp #SpeakBeautiful, Justine. It might sound surprising but your own words can help build self-esteem. pic.twitter.com/DHCNcaFghj
— Dove (@Dove) February 24, 2015
Did you know 4 out of 5 negative beauty Tweets from women are about themselves? #SpeakBeautiful to change the ratio! pic.twitter.com/8e0qWzAIZx
— Dove (@Dove) February 23, 2015
@raacheldiaaz We all struggle with self-confidence sometimes, Rachel. Focusing on something we love about ourselves can help.
— Dove (@Dove) February 24, 2015
@beautyskies It can feel like there is only one standard of beauty, but what really makes us beautiful are the things that make us unique.
— Dove (@Dove) February 23, 2015
@Suskfol48 What makes us unique, makes us beautiful! Thank you for your amazing #SpeakBeautiful tweet. pic.twitter.com/olPQPieG0Y
— Dove (@Dove) February 23, 2015
Dove’s initiative isn’t anything new, but their efforts are commendable because to this day there is still a vast lack of pride in women when it comes to beauty. Held up to the unattainable, airbrushed standard of beauty, women of all shapes and sizes, ethnicities and backgrounds still have a very tough time accepting that they are pretty in their own respects. We all struggle with it—we feel we’re too fat or too skinny, too short or too tall, too tan or too pale. Dove wants to change this by reminding women of something very vital that we tend to forget—that it’s what’s unique about us, what sets us apart from the standard, that truly makes us beautiful. Bravo Dove!