Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Justin Nemec
ENG 110-18
Professor Stoltman
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
Nemec 2
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,
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
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
Nemec 3
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
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
Nemec 4
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
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
Nemec 5
would not describe themselves as beautiful. One woman even said that being beautiful seemed
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.
Nemec 6
Dove. “Dove Choose Beautiful Campaign Reveals Beauty vs. Average Perceptions.” YouTube,
multimedia/collection/most-controversial-ad-campaigns/?page=9