How women see themselves and how others see them. (Smartketing from Dove, Inc.)

[Bucky]

Yeh, it's all corporate branding, but it's a powerful message. Every woman oughta see this. No, every person oughta see this.

http://realbeautysketches.dove.us/

[aaaaaa5a]

1. Thanks for posting. nt

[Kali]

2. wow

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. What a novel approach to the issue of self preception...just amazing, really.

Thank you for posting this...provides a lot to think about.

[alittlelark]

4. Really liked this!

[nolabear]

5. That is just stunning. Thank you!

I'm tempted to make a joke about my own appearance but, you know, I think I won't.

[Jim Lane]

6. Even though Dove sells mostly to women, they should re-run the experiment with men.

My guess: Some men, who worry about their looks, would get results similar to those of the women. Other men, self-confident to the point of arrogance, would reverse the discrepancy (the sketch based on their self-description would be the better-looking one).

I'll bet the average, if you could quantify it, would be that the women would show a significantly greater degree of unfavorable distortion in their self-image.

[Bucky]

7. I doubt that would sell more cold cream

Although, actually, I think I do use their bath soap.

[BainsBane]

8. imagine if they'd had them describe their bodies

and not just their faces. Interesting video. Thanks for sharing it.

[JDPriestly]

9. Thanks. I hope that all the young DUers see this.

I didn't realize until I was middle-aged that I at least looked normal, arguably pretty. And I only realized it then as I looked back at pictures of myself when I was young and thought, "Not bad at all." But when I was young, I judged myself as really not attractive at all.

What a shame. Young people miss out on a lot of life just worrying about whether they are acceptable.

We are all beautiful. You are beautiful.

[crazy homeless guy]

10. I want to beleive the artist was fair and.....

...drew them equally on their descriptions but he did know when he was dealing with someone describing themselves vs someone describing someone else. This could easily influence the drawing.

...also, it is marketing. I think Dove is savy enough not to make this mistake but the whole thing could be made up just to tug at your heart strings. You can call it the old Don Draper.

[caraher]

16. Very true

It's not a scientific study... and all the women participating are quite physically attractive.

Two obvious "tweaks" that would reduce the biases would be to have the women drawn also describe one another, and for the self-descriptions to be done in the 3rd person (so each woman would be instructed to respond to questions as if they were about someone else when they were actually describing themselves, and so any limitations to how they talk about appearance would be present in sketches of at least one other person as well).

Yes, it is marketing, and it's brilliant marketing because today thousands of people are associating a positive vibe with Dove. Frankly, I can't get too made at them for this if it makes women see themselves in a more positive way.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. Thank you, Bucky...

That was amazing.

[Bucky]

13. Hey, any thang for my sexay ladies.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. DU Rec.

[Taverner]

14. Dove's done some crossover marketing/PSA that has been pretty good

[Phentex]

15. I believe this!

I hear women describe things about themselves and I have often wondered if they ever look in a mirror.

I'm guilty of this too.

[caraher]

17. Sometimes the problem is looking in the mirror too much

I've heard women describe purported flaws I'd never have seen on my own. Tiny, unnoticeable things get inflated well out of proportion.

I guess when I look at myself in the mirror it's usually to look for flaws and that's true for most people (in my case, is my hair doing something weird? did I catch everything I needed to when I shaved?). But when I look at others I'm ordinarily not looking for flaws; in fact, quite the opposite. I'd rather focus on the surface features I find pleasant.

[seabeyond]

18. tears. we are so mean to ourselves. i wish people would not hurt themselves so.... nt

[lindysalsagal]

19. I stopped putting any credence in outward details a decade ago.

If you ignore the mask, the inner person is always coming through, and that's so much more interesting. The idea of beauty is misleading: I look for depth and thoughfullness and complexity, rather than perfection or symmetry.