ADVERTISING   |   POSTED ON 30.07.2014

Dove Real Beauty Sketches was a great ad born from market research suggesting that only 4% of women described themselves as beautiful.

Dove took 7 women of different ages and background and a FBI trained forensic artist to create sketches based on descriptions of their own facial features. The women were not aware of what was going on as Gil Zamora sketched them without even looking at them. Earlier that day, the women were asked to spend time with strangers, although they weren’t told why. Those strangers were later brought into the room to describe the woman to Gil Zamora. The outcome of the drawings of each woman were then hung next to each other, and the contrast between the two was pretty stark.

‘Sketches’ is a refreshing departure from many female targeted ads that try to sell the idea they could be more beautiful if they were using their products. This self esteem boosting message clearly resonated with audiences, the contents drew out strong emotional responses of warmth, happiness and knowledge from it’s target audience. After 1 month of uploading the advertisement, it had been viewed more than 114 million times, uploaded in 25 languages and viewed in more than 110 countries.

Sketches won the Titanium Grand Prix award at Cannes.