Dove - Real Beauty Sketches (Content Strategy Example)

"it’s content strategy because Dove is not aiming at selling in this case, but rather create an atmosphere around its brand, in relation to the self acceptance concept Dove tries to be identified with”

Nice observation.
When I watched this video, I thought “Boy oh boy this is a complex one”. So I tried to put myself in the shoes of three different personas:

1. The first persona example is a highly educated woman with an MIT Doctoral Degree. She considers matters of appearance to be of no consequence to how people should be judged. She has deep-rooted psychological insecurities developed during childhood, but she’d never admit it. Would she actually feel smarter after seeing the video?


2. Example persona #2 is a successful CEO. She is “self-actualized” in Maslow terms. She has no psychological hangups and is very comfortable in her own skin. Would she feel better informed after watching the video?


3. Finally, persona #3 is aware of her own self-image and is not completely happy with it. Would she feel “better informed and smarter”?

We would normally expect information to make us smarter and better informed. Is psychology information and information psychology?
One way to view this is that the audience is somehow richer in outlook from the experience. Another way is to conclude that Dove is using psychological nuances to dig deep into our pysches and tug at any “insecurity strings”.
As an awareness campaign it’s brilliant. As an example of CS, I’m on the fence. The key could be “target audience”—who is that: persona #1, 2, 3…or another persona entirely?
Others will see this as a good and just cause. If this was a Content Marketing course, I wouldn’t hesitate to provide this as one of the better examples of branded “cause-related marketing”.