In the video, which was produced by the Ogilvy & Mather ad agency, several women describe themselves to a forensic sketch artist who cannot see his subjects.

The Daily Telegraph called it "[Dove's] most thought provoking film yet", while Forbes said it was "powerful", but their reviewer felt that "it’s still focusing too much on appearance."

[3] Several ideas to achieve this aim were suggested, and it was decided that an unscripted experiment would be the best way to reach women.

Ogilvy & Mather selected two groups of women - those being sketched and those providing a second description of them - from diverse backgrounds through a normal casting process.

A three-minute long video was launched in four key markets, U.S., Canada, Brazil and Australia, and was then produced and uploaded in 25 languages to 46 Dove YouTube channels across remaining countries.

[5] The whole thing was recorded and the results were turned into a six-minute film entitled Dove Real Beauty Sketches.

[2][6] The dramatic differences in the sketches cause tears and other strong reactions when each woman is shown her two portraits.

[9] As of April 27, 2013, the 3-minute video had been viewed 30.6 million times; user feedback on YouTube was 97.6% positive (98,000 likes and 2,200 dislikes).

"[5] Adweek analyst Rebecca Cullers called the video "one of the most original and touching experiments" to come from Dove in a long time.

[1] In a Huffington Post article, Emma Gray remarks "despite the obvious commercial intentions behind this campaign, the message rings true and is a refreshing departure from the many female-targeted ads that try to shame women into buying things.

"[6] Avi Dan of Forbes said the video presents "an extraordinary, powerful image", but added "ironically it implies, if not actually stated, that beauty is still what defines women.

"[10] Writing for Bloomberg, Virginia Postrel noted that the "experiment" was not scientifically valid - the participants were not randomly selected, the sketch artist deviated from normal procedure (he didn't show the women the sketches and ask them to confirm they were accurate at the time of the drawings), and the video editors chose only seven out of about 20 women used.

She quoted forensic sketch artist Stephen Mancusi, who said, "it’s a tainted image, there’s no question about it.”[11] In the blogosphere, the video drew harsher criticism prompting Adweek to write an article entitled "5 Reasons Why Some Critics Are Hating on Dove's Real Beauty Sketches Video".

"[13] Brenda Fiala of Blast Radius, a digital advertising agency, said the Sketches campaign was successful because it taps into deep-seated emotions and "hits on a real human truth for women.

"[2] Ramos agreed: "Most ads today don’t evoke any clear emotion, they just communicate a particular product or service benefit.

"[1] Fiala predicted that consumers would remember the positive emotions the video caused and associate them with Dove products.