80% of women are unhappy with what they see in the mirror, making them feel ashamed and insecure about parts of their skin such as wrinkles, stretch marks, cellulitis, birth marks and even freckles. For years, Dove has had a clear brand purpose: to make beauty a source of confidence and not anxiety.

Furthermore, Dove, the brand that has challenged beauty stereotypes globally, has a product that has always been perceived as smooth, delicate and almost perfect: It’s iconic soap bar. However, in reality, thousands of soaps are wasted daily due to factory flaws such as cracks, slits and bumps.

On 2022 Dove not only decided to invite all women to experience beauty on their own terms, but also become an example of realness starting from its own brand.

For the first time in history Dove decided to make a tribute to real skin by exposing the factory flaws on its iconic soap bars such as cracks, slits and bumps, proving not even the soaps that we perceive as smooth and perfect, actually are and showing that the marks that make us real, just like the one on our skin, are beautiful.

Every day thousands of soaps are wasted due to factory flaws, this time, Dove decided not to. As cultural stereotypes have displaced the beauty on realness for far too long, Dove knew that in order to be really heard by woman who have felt insecure about what they saw on the mirror, it was time to make the brand become the message itself, exposing the realness on its own iconic soap factory flaws.

Dove placed the message on the hands of its own customers by sending hand-picked flawed soaps to hundreds of women and allowing those soaps who had never been seen or used by a customer, be bought at retail stores. The soaps made it to exhibitions and business woman events, inspiring them to show their true self on social networks and expose that part of their skin that also makes them beautiful.

Real woman, with real insecurities who had never been part of an ad before, exposed the most fragile details on their skin, becoming part of a film with the soaps released on the same day that hand-picked flawed bars were sent to hundreds of women.

Every soap sent, broadcasted, posted and displayed had the same purpose, proving women beauty is not defined by perfection, but by the details that make us unique. This led to an invitation to show their true self posting their real skin on social media with the hashtag #RealBeauty.

As word started to spread we went bigger, taking the soaps to a museum exhibition, female Business Leader Events and of course our retail stores.

What started as a national campaign, spread out to a regional scale, reaching women from the entire continent and showing that what makes us real is beautiful.

Dove’s #RealSoaps had an impact on the woman who had relatable marks on their skin, immediately connecting with a message of real beauty sent inside out, from the realness of the brand, to the realness on every woman’s skin. This led to a game changing industry standard that places the competitors benchmark starting line on honest and real communication.

Our limited edition is now considered to be permanently on global retailers.

+54% perception on real beauty brand purpose.

+9% Market Share.

98% Positive Sentiment.