Dove first created the “Evolution Film” where a model with zero makeup on sits in a chair. The evolution begins when makeup artists begin to do her makeup and hairstylists do her hair. The cameraman shines the light on her, takes photos; then, the photos are edited in Photoshop where they distort her face and body to make her thinner and longer. The final picture (which barely resembles the original model) glamorously appears on a billboard. The tag line reads, “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.” On the campaign’s microsite you have the option to view the ad, forward it to a friend, join in a discussion, get involved in Dove’s Self-esteem fund, take a quiz to see how high your self-esteem is, download a workbook for mothers to do activities with their daughters, send an e-card out to your friends, and find out more about how you can make a difference in a young girl’s life. All of these items create a lot of attention around the campaign. Hundreds have commented on Dove’s forum about what a great statement this spot makes and why they themselves have body image issues. All of this user-generated content helped Dove’s campaign success.

Dove has recently released two campaigns, which have created a lot of buzz. The first was for their pro-age line of products. They created a few controversial ads of nude women between the ages of 50 and 60 years old. The TV commercial consisted of the women sitting in tasteful positions while the camera panned them and words came across the screen, “too old to be in an anti-age ad.” In the end they said, “but this isn’t anti-age”…“it’s pro-age.” They ran a TV spot telling viewers to go to pro-age.com because they couldn’t reveal the commercial on TV. Of course once I saw that, curiosity got the best of me and I went straight to my computer. Once you got to the microsite you could not only view the commercial, but also you could hear the reaction to the commercial from several women, forward it to a friend, and also join the debate. Hundreds of women have written on Dove’s forum in reaction to the commercial, shared their story about how they feel beautiful or not so beautiful and also reacted to why they love pro-age products. This is user-generated content at it’s best! These women are commenting on how the commercial made them feel and commenting directly on how much they love the product. There is nothing more appealing about a product than hearing real reactions from real women who have used it. Talk about brand loyalty. Most women are thankful to Dove for doing something so daring, yet tasteful. Others post their disbelief that these older women do not have clothes on. Either way Dove is getting the publicity…and even bad publicity is good publicity.

The latest and greatest has been Dove’s campaign for Dove Cream Oil Body Wash. Dove had a contest for customers to create a TV spot. The winner was announced during the 2007 Academy Awards. Lindsay Miller (22) from Sherman Oaks, California won with her message, “you are beautiful even when no one is looking.” Lindsay created this TV spot with her digital camera and final cut pro software. When this contest started there were hundreds that entered, only one won. If you go to Dove on YouTube you will see the hundreds that entered have posted their videos online for everyone to see. Some people even made up songs or videos just for fun. This is free advertising for Dove! So as people are searching for Dove’s commercials they will find armature videos of people who just love Dove products. The actual commercial for Dove Cream Oil has been viewed over 3,103,265 times. Not to mention the “Evolution Film” alone has been viewed well over 41,840,668 times just on YouTube.

Collectively these campaigns have put Dove on the map for some of the most creative viral campaigns out there. We have controversy, opinions, user-generated content, viral marketing, and the public is eating it up. People have felt so connected to these ads that they have posted their opinions, forwarded the ads to friends, and posted the commercials on YouTube. This is what advertising is supposed to do…spark a reaction. In Dove’s case, their ads have sparked the reaction of so many people that the people in turn have promoted the brand without even realizing it.

Dove is currently casting for another campaign, “calling all real women!”

I challenge you to go to go to check out Dove’s ads and share your thoughts….then let me know what you think.