Rhetorical Elements In Commercials And Social Media

Influential Advertising: Dove and Its Use of Rhetorical Elements in Commercials and Social Media" by Paulina Alvarez gives a deep dive into Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” advertisement success and how it was accomplished using rhetorical elements.

Women’s beauty is subjective and always has been. But society has been known to put what norms should be for women's beauty. Dove knew this a put a campaign out called “Campaign for Real Beauty” in 2003 which was highly acclaimed and taken as one of the most influential advertisements of this century. The purpose of that campaign was to put a question on women’s beauty showing a picture of a women with “non-ideal” beauty standards and having the customer pick wheatear the person was “fat or

The first commercial is called “Evolution” and it shows how companies will take a model, and then photoshop her to look different when the final product is published. The goal of this commercial is to show how women “should” look does not reflect reality. The next commercial is called “Beauty on Your Own Terms #MyBeautyMySay” even using the hashtag to get a more widespread viewing of the commercial as the hashtag has already gone viral. This commercial has women talk about personal experiences with being told they wouldn’t be able to accomplish something because of their looks. The commercial then tries to empower the women showing how the women in the commercial responded. The last commercial is called “60th Birthday #RaiseTheBeautyBar” and shows how the company has not changed the formula to their bar soap. But what has changed is the beauty standards in the world. Dove then thanks the customers for sticking with the company. With these commercials Dove’s goal is trying to relate to the audience to help them find relatability watching it; as well as to promote beauty, strength, and positivity. This helps disguise the other purpose Dove has with its commercials, and that is to sell products. They do this by still using the elements of selling or informing their audience about a specific product as well as giving thanks to their customers. Then according to the survey Alvarez took, what

This allowed the company to still manage to grab the audience's attention while also sharing information about it. An example is their promotion of the viral hashtags #MyBeautyMySay and #Real Beauty. They used these hashtags with a picture of a women having the caption say “After becoming a mother, Heather wanted to get back in shape and decided to take up boxing. She soon started to pursue it professionally -- even though she was told she was "too pretty to fight." These comments only made her more determined as sportswoman. Today, Heather aims to build a presence for female boxing on sports networks, while proving that the way she looks has nothing to do with her boxing. How do you define beauty on your own terms? #RealBeauty #MyBeautyMySay” This uses the top four most used themes Dove used in social media being the Promoting Beauty/Strength/Positivity by telling the audience to not give up on their dreams. Sharing Personal Experiences, Encouraging the Community by telling and female they can be a boxer, and Encouraging the Individual showing anyone can do