Nothing

I respect Dove’s mission in empowering women to appreciate and love their bodies—every flaw included. Granted, its not an altruistic mission, it’s advertising after all, but it’s definitely made a difference in women’s lives and how they feel about themselves.

One of my favourite Dove campaigns was the Dove Real Beauty Sketches. I admit, when I watched the commercial during the Cannes Lions, my eyes welled up and I thought, “WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST LOVE OURSELVES!?”

However, Dove’s latest campaign does not have me reaching for a Kleenex box. The new Real Beauty commercial features a RB-X beauty patch that nurtures positive body thinking and self-confidence into the arms of real life women. The thing is, the patch is actually a placebo. RB-X doesn’t exist.

Sure, the commercial is idealistic and encouraging—“Look! You CAN think positively about yourself!”—But in the end, it made me cringe.

Positive body image and self-confidence are learned attributes. Sure, fitting into great clothes and being noticed by strangers helps—but it’s a temporary fix to a much deeper problem. Hypothetically, a beauty patch, much like a smoking patch wouldn’t succeed on its own, it takes time and discipline to overcome that normalized negativity.

An extension of this criticism, which has been widely documented, is how gullible the women are to the patches’ magic fix. It seems ludicrous and sad to watch how easily the women take to the patch and believe its effects. In my opinion, it felt like an entrenched desperation to stop being angry with their bodies and embrace them. Which is noble, but only until you witness the big reveal and then the tears, and you can’t help but pity the women more than congratulate them on their journey to positive self-discovery. 

What are your thoughts?