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Justin Nemec

ENG 110-18

Professor Stoltman

October 24, 2019

Are You Beautiful?

Dove is a very well-known company that produces a wide range of personal care

products. They have been ridiculed in the past for their controversial or misinterpreted

advertisements, and this time is no different. The ad in question is not attempting to sell a

specific product, it only serves to promote the brand name. It was run in April of 2015. In the ad

there is a young, woman standing alone looking at two doors outside of what appears to be a
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department store. The door on the left is labeled “Beautiful” and the door on the right is labeled

“Average”. The “Average” door looks as if it was recently opened, as it is slightly ajar. In the

reflection on the same door, you can see the young woman of color standing outside. Inside,

people can be seen behind both doors. This picture is just one frame from the original video ad,

but it serves to summarize the video as a whole.

As seen in the image, the targeted audience of this ad is predominantly women, especially

those who may feel insecure about how they look. The woman standing outside represents

women who go through the same struggle of insecurity every day. She is forced to make a

decision on which door to choose. Does she choose to stand out and be confident by calling

herself beautiful? Does she choose to be modest and average? If she does choose beautiful, does

that make her conceited? By targeting these insecurities, Dove creates an ad that persuades its

viewers to be more inclined to buy their product.

By targeting this specific audience, the advertisement also reveals its purpose, which is to

allow women to choose whether they see themselves as beautiful or average. In doing this, the ad

targets the insecurities of women, and those that have poor self-image. The lone woman to the

left of the picture is seen pondering her choices. She can choose either door, but appears hesitant.

By targeting these insecurities and making women choose which door to enter, Dove is

capitalizing on women’s insecurities to promote their product. The women who choose to enter

the “average” door would be more likely to buy a product that could potentially mask their

insecurities.

Similar to the purpose, the concept of this ad is also simply put as women having the

choice to choose if they see themselves as beautiful or just average. The two doors represent

their two choices, but the one door seems a little further out of reach than the other. The societal
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norm shown here is to accept that maybe you aren’t beautiful, or that there are people more

beautiful than you out there, and walking through the “average” door is the normal thing to do.

The freedom to choose is there, but the confidence to choose what they want to believe is

lacking.

As with most ads, there are limiting factors that keep the ad from being as effective as it

could be. One limitation of this ad is that it specifically targets women as the audience. Not only

does this ad specifically target women, it specifically does not target men. This suggests that men

don’t have issues with their body image and that they should be confident in themselves. Adding

men to the advertisement would add another layer of meaning to it, because men do in fact

struggle with these same issues. Another limitation might be women who already think they truly

are beautiful. A woman that is already confident in her appearance wouldn’t feel the need to buy

this product to enhance her appearance. This ad was also run worldwide, so one final limitation

could be a certain society’s interpretation of what beauty is. There are many different factors that

play into what beauty is depending on culture and location.

As mentioned previously, this specific picture is just one frame from a longer video

advertisement. This picture best represents the video as a whole because of its vast number of

visual elements. One really interesting visual element of this ad is the isolation of the woman

standing outside. She is standing alone, looking at the two doors in front of her, pondering her

decision. She could have a partner or a friend next to her to help make her decision, but she

doesn’t. She is alone and must make her choice alone. Another visual element that really stands

out is the slightly open “average” door. This suggests that this door is more frequently opened.

This creates a societal norm that it’s okay to go through the “average” door, and that the

“beautiful” door is not to be used at all. Behind the glass doors, you can see people standing on
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either side. This suggests that it’s likely that regardless of which door you enter, you’ll end up

inside no matter what. One final visual element that really stands out is in the reflection of the

“average” door. In the reflection you can see the woman that is standing outside. This implies

that even though she appears to be questioning which door to enter, her mind is already made up.

This advertisement obviously has some shortcomings and oversights, and some of them

are easily fixed. One alternative to this campaign that may be better received by the intended

audience would be relabeling the “average” door to “beautiful” so that there are now two doors

labeled “beautiful.” This way women feel like they are beautiful no matter which door they

enter. Something as simple as relabeling a door has an entirely different effect on the audience.

Another alternative to this ad would be including men in the ad as well. Men also suffer from

body image issues alongside women. Including them in this ad would widen the audience and

possibly create a more popular following. One last possible alternative they could have used

would be to stage the ad a little bit by having some actors purposefully walk through both doors.

Perhaps they would even have actors only walk through the “beautiful” door. This would help

women to not feel so singled out to make a decision, and maybe feel more comfortable and

confident walking through the “beautiful” door.

The intended purpose of this ad was to show women that they do in fact have a choice in

whether they see themselves as beautiful or not, and it should only be their choice. In the video,

the women who entered the “average” door were asked why they did so. Their response was that

they didn’t even hesitate. They just instantly went through the “average” door without giving the

“beautiful” door a second thought. A lot of the women regretted their decision and wondered

why they weren’t confident enough in themselves to walk through the “beautiful” door.

According to the study done, as stated in the Insider Edition YouTube video, 96% of women
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would not describe themselves as beautiful. One woman even said that being beautiful seemed

“too far out of reach.”

In conclusion, Dove’s “beautiful or average” ad brings light to a few different important

topics, one being the issue of self-image in women. In today’s world, women are faced with

many challenges involving insecurities, namely those brought up by social media and cosmetics

advertisements. Women being able to choose whether see themselves as beautiful or average has

always been an option, but being able to choose free of judgement or hesitation has never truly

existed.
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Dove. “Dove Choose Beautiful Campaign Reveals Beauty vs. Average Perceptions.” YouTube,

uploaded by Inside Edition, 8 April 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjJALzZ24H0.

“Most controversial ad campaigns.” WashingtonTimes, https://www.washingtontimes.com/

multimedia/collection/most-controversial-ad-campaigns/?page=9