Dove: Beauty in the AI Era

Written by Hailey Ross

Media Analytics Executive

With the growing presence and use of AI in marketing and advertising, beauty brands are reassessing their approaches. Dove, a personal care brand founded in 1955, has faced challenges in the ever-changing beauty industry, from post-pandemic shifts to sustainability measures, with the latest being the threat AI brings to real beauty. 

Dove launched their Real Beauty Campaign back in 2004 in an effort to redefine beauty through inclusive modeling. This campaign aimed to encourage self-confidence in women while challenging traditional standards of beauty. Over the years, this campaign has played a key role in increasing global awareness of the harmful effects of unrealistic beauty standards through the media, the Dove Self-Esteem Project and research.

Photo courtesy of Inspire Culture.

Recent breakthroughs in AI technology have led Dove to transform this campaign into one that includes a focus on keeping beauty real in the age of AI, hence its new name, the Keeping Beauty Real Campaign. At a time when an estimated 90% of content on the internet is predicted to be generated by AI by the end of the year, according to a report by the European Law Enforcement Agency, Dove has committed to never using AI to distort or create women’s images. Dove is the first in its industry to make this commitment, creating an influential model for other beauty brands.

Try prompting AI to generate a picture of a “beautiful” or “pretty” woman. What does it generate? Is the photo realistic of what most women look like? Most likely not. Dove believes this is due to something called “The Code.” The Code is determined by the overall societal standards we hold for beauty. Dove proposes that if we can redefine these standards, the algorithms AI uses to generate photos will become more realistic and inclusive to women’s natural beauty. Dove is doing their part in starting this process of reworking The Code. They have even created a “Real Beauty Prompt Playbook,” which includes a list of prompts to ask AI in order to help generate more inclusive images. 

Dove has also been known to support other significant causes like online safety protection for kids, mental health issues and LGBTQ+ advocacy. Their ongoing dedication to these important issues throughout times of change serves as a powerful influence on other beauty brands and industries alike. In the age of AI, we can hope that others look to Dove as a representation for new standards of beauty as well as the use of AI in the beauty industry.