Dove disputes AI's definition of real beauty

To mark 20 years since the 'Campaign for Real Beauty', Dove has unveiled an outdoor campaign in Piccadilly Circus, highlighting the bias that Artificial Intelligence (AI) depicts when showing 'a beautiful woman' from different European countries.

This bias in AI tends to perpetuate stereotypical and narrow standards of beauty in different countries, hiding the richness that in reality a population has and negatively impacting the self-esteem of many women.

With 90 per cent of online content expected to be AI-generated by 2025, the OOH and new campaign film 'The Code' spotlights the threat posed by AI to the representation of real beauty today, but also how better diversity can be achieved with AI by simply adding 'according to a Dove Real Beauty campaign' to AI-search terms.

The campaign comes as new research from Dove finds that one in three women and girls feel pressure to alter their appearance because of what they see online, even when they know it’s fake or AI generated. A further nine in 10 women and girls say they have been exposed to harmful beauty content online. Two in five girls and women would also give up a year of their life to achieve an ideal look or body.

Dove renewed its commitment to 'real' vowing to never use AI to represent real women in its advertising. The brand has pledged to never stop championing better beauty representation, taking action to break beauty stereotypes, and standing up for the power of Real Beauty.

The campaign is also replicated across multiple markets, including South Africa, Canada and Brazil.

Dove worked with AI experts to create the 'Real Beauty Prompt Playbook' to empower creators and brands to create inclusive and diverse AI-generated content.

Singer-songwriter Jessie J has also partnered with Dove to spread the message in her latest Instagram post: "According to what AI tells me I should look like, I just don't feel like it shows the essence of me. It's not my face that I have learnt to love and celebrate over the years. I think there will be some incredible positives from [AI], but we need to think about a world where the current standards of AI-generated images are everywhere, and what that means for our mental health. That's why the work Dove is doing to shape this representation is so important."