April 26, 12.40 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
The exclusive campaign aims to widen the existing beauty ideals in India
In a country with 631m* women, 29 states and 22 languages, new research conducted by Dove reveals that76% of Indian women believe, in today’s society, it is critical to meet certain beauty standards. Through a film shot with 85 women across India, Dove’s new campaign, “Let’s Break the Rules of Beauty”, aims to redefine the existing beauty standards and inspires India to embrace its diversity in beauty.
To promote conversations which ultimately have a positive impact on women and girls, Dove’s 2016 global research aims to understand how women today are feeling about self-esteem, beauty and how their opinions have evolved over time. While Indian girls and women were found to be more happy with their life compared to the global total, the pressure to comply to Indian beauty ideals still exists with 80% Indian women and 77% Indian girls believing that to do well in life, they need to look a certain way.
Dove through its new campaign invites women to make their own features as celebrated as existing stereotypes. The “Let’s Break the Rules of Beauty” film is shot by Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary maker, PanNalin and captures “Real Women” from diverse states in India. Eighty Five women have been filmed in their own avatars celebrating their own idea of beauty.
“Culturally, India is experiencing a real movement towards female empowerment and our research reveals that 67% of Indian women and 64% Indian girls would like to see a more diverse range of beauty represented in the media. Over 50 years we have supported women, all over the world, to see beauty as a source of confidence and not anxiety. With our new campaign on Real Beauty we would like to further encourage conversations on the evolving ideals of beauty in India” said SrirupMitra, General Manager – Hindustan Unilever.
“For centuries we have built an ideal for beauty in India, even the recent cinema is celebrating only a certain type of beauty. Very rarely do we celebrate the diversity of beauty. What attracted me to this campaign was originality, honesty and of course the opportunity to work with so many women from diverse backgrounds and different cultural heritage” said Pan Nalin
Join Dove in celebrating “Let’s Break the Rules of Beauty” by watching the film. Share the film together with what #RealBeauty means to you.
Dove has long been committed to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. Dove hopes to inspire women to develop a positive relationship with beauty, because when women recognize the beauty in themselves, they have powerful ability to positively impact the next generation.
Through the Dove Self-Esteem Project, launched in 2004, Dove has reached more than 19 million young people globally with self-esteem education.