By Felicia Nwosu

As part of its sustained efforts at giving brands and companies the tools to show a more diverse representation of beauty, Unilever’s Dove, in partnership with Epic Games’s Unreal Engine education team and Women in Games, has released a new ad encouraging body confidence in women. The campaign is designed to eradicate beauty stereotypes.

It is posed as a strong tool to discourage inferiority complex among the younger generation and help build self-worth that acknowledges their beauty. Through the campaign, Dove took a stand against overly sexualized women fronting video games.

It exposes the viewers to a whole new world of maintaining self-esteem as it captures a young woman who strips herself of an over-sexualized costume and becomes more comfortable with herself as she sheds the bodysuit and mask.
Highlighting on the ads, Leandro Barreto, global vice-president at Dove, said that Dove believes that beauty should be a source of confidence, not anxiety, in every aspect of life, both real and virtual.

According to Dove, “Although the games industry has made significant strides to become more inclusive, progress needs to be accelerated to challenge the narrow definitions of beauty still visible in the virtual world. Together without partners, we hope to make a real impact on the millions of women and girls who spend their free time playing games.”

The brain behind the campaign idea, Lola MullenLowe, revealed that it was stimulated by a new research study from Dove that showed 60% of girls and 62% of women feel misrepresented in games, with over one-third of young girls’ self-esteem being negatively impacted by lack of diversity in avatar characters. Unsurprisingly, 74% of women also wish for more inclusivity in female video game characters.

Tomas Ostiglia, executive creative director at Lola MullenLowe, added: “This represented an opportunity for Dove to talk about inclusion and representation in gaming, using animation for the first time ever.”