"The Dove Code" emerges as a legacy of Dove's brand storytelling journey of 20-year advocacy for real beauty, evolving from its iconic Campaign for Real Beauty. Since 2004, Dove has actively redefined beauty standards, launching over 2,800 global campaigns showcasing more than 14,000 diverse real women. Through initiatives like the Dove Self-Esteem Project and the Crown Act, Dove invested millions, directly supporting more than 100 million lives. These history made Dove become a code, influencing AI depiction of women. “The Dove Code” project changes the biased portrayal of women by AI, advocating for a more inclusive and equitable representation. The project serves as a powerful emblem of how a brand can transcend mere activism in gender representation, evolving into a catalyst for societal and industry-wide shifts toward gender equality and a more authentic depiction of beauty. Dove changes AI, because it's actually changing beauty.

"The Dove Code" emerges as both a timely and timeless initiative, addressing the critical challenges posed by the burgeoning influence of AI on content creation. In today's digital landscape, where AI is projected to generate 90% of online content by 2025, this project is particularly relevant. Considered part of the 3rd Industrial Revolution, AI issues are already compared by the UN at the same risk of nuclear war. The prevailing trend within AI-generated imagery showcases a homogenized beauty standard—37% feature blonde hair and 53% depict white, tanned skin—mirroring and amplifying societal biases. Such trends threaten to erode the progress made towards embracing a more inclusive spectrum of beauty, underscoring the urgent need for interventions like "The Dove Code."

This initiative becomes timeless by integrating Dove's two-decade-long advocacy for real beauty into the digital DNA of AI, ensuring that the technology's portrayal of beauty aligns with more diverse standards. The "Global State Beauty Research" by Dove amplifies the necessity of this project, revealing the impact of AI on body confidence, with 1 in 3 women feeling compelled to alter their appearance due artificial beauty on social media. By embedding Dove's legacy of challenging beauty norms into AI, solid made by 20 years of brand's public relations and reputation, The Dove Code" not only addresses immediate concerns but also lays a foundational blueprint for the future generations to come, making the project a pivotal moment in the ongoing dialogue around beauty, technology, and society.

Dove has been a pioneer in championing real beauty, challenging the unrealistic beauty standards in industry. Since the “Campaign for Real Beauty” in 2004, Dove has been dedicated to authentically representing real women. As Dove celebrated the campaign's 20th anniversary in 2024, Dove's global beauty study revealed a troubling trend: 1 in 3 women feel compelled to change their appearance due to online artificial beauty standards. The objective was dual: to honor Dove's legacy by promoting a wider spectrum of beauty across its communications and ensuring that technology accurately showcases this diversity, countering the spread of artificial beauty that perpetuates stereotypes. Despite Dove's commitment to never use AI to create or distort images of women, the broader challenge persists, as the world continues to do so. "The Dove Code" project is Dove's response, aiming to redefine and inclusively represent beauty in the digital age, especially within AI-generated content.

The cultural, social, and political climate surrounding gender representation on AI is marked by evident challenges and disparities. For instance, AI has demonstrated gender bias in its analyses, classifying images of women as more sexually suggestive than those of men. This has resulted in the suppression of women's images on social media platforms, negatively affecting both civil liberties and women's online representation. Furthermore, the lack of gender diversity in the tech industry, where only 22% of AI professionals are women, highlights a significant gap impacting the development of algorithms and technological products.

These disparities are not merely cultural or social but have political and security implications as well. Government regulations are being debated, as evidenced by the European Commission's white paper on Artificial Intelligence, which underscores the need for measures to prevent discrimination. The underrepresentation of women in data and algorithms may even endanger lives, as seen in the case of car safety device designs primarily based on male data, leading to a higher likelihood of serious injuries and death for women in car accidents.

Thus, work to combat gender bias in AI is not merely a technical issue but also a crucial matter of equality, safety, and social justice.

“The Dove Code” campaign leverages Dove's 20-year legacy of showcasing real beauty to transform the biased beauty standards perpetuated by artificial intelligence (AI). This groundbreaking global initiative showcases how Dove has become a universal code for altering AI's representation of beauty. While conventional searches in generative AI image tools like Midjourney or DALL-E for terms like “a gorgeous woman” or “a confident woman” often yield results of standardized, narrow beauty ideals, adding “according to Dove real beauty campaign” to the search query unveils a drastically different outcome. This approach reveals a diverse array of women of different races, ethnicities, body types, skin tones, and hair textures, showcasing real beauty through AI. By embedding Dove's principles into AI, “The Dove Code” not only critiques the state of digital beauty standards but also provides a powerful solution for inclusivity, positioning Dove's vision of diverse and authentic beauty a benchmark for the future.

The strategy is rooted in comprehensive data analysis to target women of all ages globally. Our "Real State of Beauty" research engaged over 33,000 participants across 20 countries, mirroring a study Dove conducted two decades ago. This extensive study illuminated the impact of artificial beauty on women's self-esteem, revealing that artificial intelligence emerged as a threat to women's self-perception in 2024. Rather than merely highlighting the issue, we proactively introduced a solution: presenting Dove as a code for authentic representations of women on AI. Our global campaign, across TV, social media, OOH, and print platforms, strategically exposes how prevailing AI tools generate biased portrayals of women's appearances. In contrast, Dove emerges as a trusted ally committed to fostering diverse representations. Through this multifaceted approach, we aim not just to raise awareness but also to effect tangible change in depicting real beauty in the digital age.

To launch the campaign, we held simultaneous events in New York and London, attended by gender bias activists in artificial intelligence, influencers, and the press. We shared research findings and campaign assets, and explained how to use “The Dove Code” in AI, unveiling a free guide to promote better representation of women. The campaign extended across 30 countries in Q2 2024, featuring films of varying lengths (120'', 60'', 15''), highlighting the powerful idea embodied in the classical "Pure Imagination" song performed by Victoria Canal, a rising talent and advocate for individuals with disabilities. Social media challenges, print, and outdoor executions complemented the campaign, with geo-targeted displays showcasing different outcomes. Examples included localizations for many countries, such as “imagine a Brazilian woman” versus “imagine a Brazilian woman like Dove's real beauty ad” in Brazil, or even “imagine a nurse” versus “imagine a nurse like Dove's real beauty ad” next to hospitals.

Dove changed AI because it has actively redefined beauty through over 2,800 global campaigns, featuring more than 14,000 diverse real women in 20 years. Since 2004, Dove tripled its turnover to reach €6 billion in 2024 - its largest sales volume increase in ten years. Initiatives like the Dove Self-Esteem Project and the Crown Act have impacted over 100 million girls' lives. The campaign received 94% of positive sentiment and marked the biggest PR coverage of Dove's history. The "Global State of Beauty" research findings, a widely viewed campaign film (over 500 million organic views globally), and "Real Beauty Prompt Guidelines" that attracted over 10,000 downloads in two weeks generated, altogether, over 4 billion organic impressions for the campaign. This comprehensive approach resulted in over 1,000 global press and social media publications, with coverage in major outlets like Fast Company, FOX, Globo, NBC, Forbes, and Elle.

By pledging to refrain from using image distortion and retouching tools for women, Dove sets a precedent for ethical representation in AI applications. While the wider world may continue to utilize such tools, Dove's unwavering commitment remains steadfast. With Europol projecting that 90% of online content will be AI-generated by 2025, Dove's stance becomes increasingly significant. To broaden its impact, Dove has developed “Real Beauty Prompt Guidelines,” offering prompts for brands and media outlets to access real and diverse images of women on AI platforms like Midjourney and DALL-E. By sharing this resource, Dove empowers others to embrace principles of inclusivity and authenticity, extending the reach and impact of its initiative. As a result, the long-term impact of “The Dove Code” is not merely theoretical but already evident, driving tangible progress toward a more representative digital landscape.