In 2004, Dove and Ogilvy organized a photography exhibit titled "Beyond Compare: Women Photographers on Real Beauty".
[3] The Dove Real Beauty campaign was conceived in 2004 during a three-year creative strategic research effort, conducted in partnership with three universities, led by Joah Santos.
[5] The first stage of the campaign centered on a series of billboard advertisements, initially put up in Germany and United Kingdom.
Dove's Self-Esteem Fund released statistics to support the idea that young women and girls are likelier to have distorted views of beauty.
[1] In April 2013, a video titled Dove Real Beauty Sketches was released as part of the campaign, created by Hugo Veiga.
[22] Critics and defenders have both pointed out that one ad campaign seeking to redefine beauty is unlikely to solve a widespread social problem of women and girls feeling physical insecurities.
[23] Dr. Carolyn Coker Ross at Psych Central estimated 80 percent of American women feel dissatisfied with their bodies.
"[28] Tanzina Vega at The New York Times interviewed a 24-year-old who noted about the marketing that "at the heart of it all is that beauty is still what defines women.
[30] Others expressed concerns that while Dove portrays their models as unedited and "real", the images have actually been photoshopped to smooth the appearance of the women's skin, hide wrinkles and blemishes, fix stray hairs, etc.
[32] The campaign has been criticized on the grounds that Unilever also produces Glow & Lovely, a skin-lightening product marketed at dark-skinned women in several countries.
[34] Moreover, Unilever owns Axe hygiene products, which are marketed to men using overtly sexualized women, and SlimFast diet bars;[35][36] however, Will Burns at Forbes called such criticism "irrelevant", arguing that consumers would not be able to recognize that these brands shared a parent company.