According to Kilbourne, who has studied advertising since the '70s, Dove was -- and still is -- one of the onlymainstream advertisers talking about how we define female beauty."There are so few commercials that in any way are different, that challenge the stereotypical images," shetold HuffPost.Some other brands have followed suit, capitalizing on the association of their products with a message offemale empowerment. Commercials like Pantene's "Labels Against Women" draw on themes similar to theCampaign for Real Beauty's, like the snap judgments people make based on a woman's looks -- and whythat shouldn't matter.MOVING BEYOND "REBRANDING"Knowing that the campaign would be criticized as a shallow marketing ploy, the team behind the Campaignfor Real Beauty concluded that simply talking about these issues wasn't enough."[We were thinking], we have to walk the talk," Sharon MacLeod, vice president of Unilever North AmericaPersonal Care, told HuffPost. "We can't just be getting people stirred up; awareness and conversation isn'tenough. We actually have to do something to change what's happening."349 She Culture CRT: Genderization
And so Dove created a fund in 2004 to partner with organizations like the Girl Scouts, Boys& Girls Clubs ofAmerica and Girls Inc. to organize activities including discussions about online bullying and photographyprojects capturing the beauty girls see in the world around them."A product-based affair was never going to [affect change]," Janet Kestin, former creative director of Ogilvy& Mather Toronto who worked on "Evolution," told HuffPost. "The goal is to alleviate pressure on the nextgeneration."The team at Dove Canada created a series of short films to raise awareness about the fund and the largercampaign. Former creative leaders at Ogilvy & Mather Nancy Vonk and Kestin worked with directors TimPiper and Yael Staav to create "Daughters," a series of interviews with mothers and theirdaughters; "Onslaught," a look at how the beauty industry targets young girls; and "Evolution," showinghow makeup and digital alterations can make an average woman look like a supermodel, which quicklyblew up on YouTube. (The video currently has 16.9 million views.)"Evolution," 2006"Evolution" was the tipping point, turning the Campaign For Real Beauty into a household name. For manyyoung women, "Evolution" struck a chord, opening their eyes to the narrow definitions of beauty they grewup with and the way images were manipulated to fit said ideals. Today, "Evolution" still has an impact, butseems almost passé. Women's websites like Jezebel, which launched in 2007, took up the gauntlet, makingsure that women all over the world saw what unretouched magazine spreads and billboards look like.Dove still feels like it has a role to play in ongoing discussions about beauty and body image. "We're goingto try to change a generation," MacLeod told HuffPost. "You have to wait until they grow up to see whathappens."Dove plans to continue making videos like 2013's "Real Beauty Sketches." Currently, Dove Canada isworking on a social media campaign, #DovePositiveChange, which posts encouraging responses to womentweeting self-deprecating remarks about themselves. And Dove's latest short film, "Selfie," was released onJan. 20.THE DOWNSIDE TO "REAL BEAUTY"But is Dove's idea of change what we should be focusing on?Not everyone agrees with the importance the campaign places on physical beauty. In an April 2013 piecefor The Cut, Ann Friedman wrote:350 She Culture CRT: Genderization
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