Our thinking

Coding beauty

3 May, 2024

In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms, Dove’s latest campaign strikes a chord with a thought-provoking video. In line with its decades-long endeavour to promote “real beauty”, it asks relevant questions about the role AI might play in perceptions of beauty in the future. 

Dove’s campaign revolves around asking the question “what kind of beauty do we want AI to learn?”. The video shows how, at the moment, AI is being used to create digital content in ways that are perpetuating a non-inclusive, stereotyped notion of beauty. In response, Dove has made a pledge to “never use AI to create or distort women’s images”.

This isn’t just a simple rejection of technology however. Dove has also created the Real Beauty Prompt guidelines which show how people can create images representing “real beauty” while using generative AI applications.

This campaign feels very on-brand for Dove which has led the conversation around beauty standards for many years. It has faced straight into the AI storm, highlighted the importance of keeping humans at the centre of what we do, and made a positive and useful contribution to the debate. The conversation around the use of AI in beauty surely won’t end here, but we’re glad Dove has made a first stand.

By Flora Gicquel