Huffington Magazine Issue 87 | Page 58

REDEFINING BEAUTY sage is at odds with its products, and that the company is capitalizing on women’s poor body images. “[These products] could not possibly exist if women actually as a demographic believed the principles at the campaign’s core,” Pozner told HuffPost. “Cellulite cream would not exist if women believed they were beautiful and enough as it is.” Pozner also expressed surprise that Dove has not affected change within its parent company: If the stated goal of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign is for girls and women to understand that their power and their beauty does not come from a tube or an airbrush or a cream, but rather from their own personalities and power, then the company would not sell certain products that they sell, and their parent company would not run some of the most misogynistic ad campaigns in the past ten years. While Dove does not release sales figures, executives at Unilever suggest that the campaign has boosted sales. “We believe that conversation HUFFINGTON 02.09.14 leads to brand love, and brand love leads to brand loyalty,” Jennifer Bremner, brand director of skin cleansing at Unilever, said in an interview with HuffPost. “That’s obviously a positive for us not just in the power of the brand, but also ultimately in sales.” Bringing ‘Real Women’ Into the Picture A few months after “Tick Box,” Dove launched a billboard campaign that featured groups of “real,” diverse women in their underwear. One of the women featured on the original billboards “Until we get to a point in the culture where the dominant messages about girls and women are not focused on their physical bodies, then we do need to actually reaffirm a broader and more innate, internal definition of what beauty is.” was Gina Crisanti, who was approached by a talent scout while taking out the trash at her job at a café. According to Crisanti, she wanted to join the campaign to help other women feel empowered and confident in their bodies. “I grew up not being happy with