Dove Patches: The Beauty within

Applauded by many Dove: Patches, the newest social experiment conducted by Dove and promoted via a youtube video, has indeed been a revelation. The youtube video has already crossed the 25 million views mark and the video continues to be discussed and dissected. The premise itself is simple enough; a random sample of women are given a beauty patch which they are to wear for two weeks. The women are also asked to keep a video diary of their day-to-day experience with the patch. While hardly any of them observe any noticeable change in the first three days of the experiment, by the fourth day everyone starts to become convinced. As the days progress, the women feel ever more beautiful and their confidence grows. However, that's when the catch is revealed. The beauty patch doesn't actually work.
In a survey conducted before the experiment, it was seen that 80 per cent of women feel anxious about the way they look. Dr. Ann Kearney-Cooke (Ph.D., Counseling Psycology and New York Times best selling author) guided the experiment, having 30 years of experience in researching women's body image and self-esteem. Her research and Dove's philosophy found common ground in one area; both believe that beauty is a state of mind and if one has the power to believe they are beautiful, they are capable of doing things they normally would not have considered. The youtube video's most compelling case is that of a woman who felt so ashamed of her arms that she regularly refused to go shopping. Once she was given the beauty patch and as her confidence grew, she came out of her comfort zone, went shopping with her daughter and had a great time. Because she believed she was beautiful, she gained the confidence to go out and do what she wanted to.
The highlight of the video is when the women are told about the patch actually containing nothing. In fact, this reinforced the belief for them that the beauty was indeed within them. Although some refused to believe that the patch was nothing, the realisation soon dawned. The campaign picks up from a previous campaign where it was shown that people tend to downplay their attractiveness and actually believe themselves to look worse than they are. Once a woman's confidence is boosted however, the sky really is the limit.
"When a woman feels beautiful, she radiates happiness and confidence, which inspires her life in a significant way,” said Dr. Kearney-Cooke. “These women, like so many others, struggle to recognise their own beauty and it severely affects their daily lives. This ground-breaking experiment was designed to illustrate that beauty is a state of mind and that the power to feel beautiful comes from within.”
Dove believes it is important for women to see the beauty in themselves so that they can inspire the next generation. The brand has set a goal of reaching 15 million young lives with self-esteem programming by the end of 2015 and has reached over 12 million to date. Dove Patches campaign: Bangladesh launch event, organised by Dove – a brand of Unilever Bangladesh was held in a local hotel in Dhaka on 19 April 2014 in the presence of renowned media and corporate personalities, psychologists, beauty experts and journalists. To commemorate this event, Kaniz Almas (Persona), Abida Ali (Figurina), Professor Dr. Shahin Islam (Chairman, Department of Educational and Counseling, Psychology, Dhaka University), and Zaved Akhtar (Brand Building Director – Personal Care, UBL) were present including many more renowned personalities. The audience, regardless of gender, all left feeling confident about themselves.