Dove Celebrates 60 Years of Real Beauty

Can you believe it’s been 60 years since Dove, the brand we probably have all used at least once, launched?

Marking it’s 60^th birthday this year, Dove has partnered with legendary fashion photographer Mario Testino to celebrate real women and their real beauty.

The campaign, Dove Real Beauty Showcase, features 32 women from 15 different countries, ranging in age from 11 to 71, re-affirming the brand’s commitment to championing diversity and widening the definition of beauty.

And since it’s the brand that created the real beauty template in 2004 that many of its contemporaries have since taken on, its re-starting its promise to widen the definition of beauty by always portraying women of all ages, sizes and ethnicities plus never presenting flawless images of so-called ‘perfect’ beauty – instead, celebrating women as they are.

Mario Testino commented on the campaign: “The way Dove empowers women to celebrate their own unique beauty has long resonated with me.

“I have always taken the same approach with my pictures. A photographer has a choice – they can take a picture and make it about themselves by using avant-garde techniques, sometimes capturing the weakness in women, or they can choose to give their picture over to the woman in front of the lens by making her look herself and feel her most powerful.”

Some of the stars of the campaign include Vicki, a retired medal-winning Paralympian from the UK who had to change her definition of beauty after losing her leg to cancer; Paola, a football lover who started her own club for girls in her hometown of Mexico City after she noticed many young girls drop out of sports as they entered their teenage years; and Cammy, who participated in the Dove Self-Esteem Project over 10 years ago and now passes it on to the next generation of young girls through her public speaking and coaching.

In 2004, Dove launched the Campaign for Real Beauty, the first-ever campaign to feature and celebrate real women.