New Delhi: Dove has launched the third installment of its #StopTheBeautyTest campaign, in which the brand shares the personal stories of four mothers who inspired change by rewriting their daughters’ married lives free from beauty stigmas, introducing ‘Mothermonials’.
The campaign is based on the insight that in biographies circulated within family groups, daughters are described solely on the basis of their height, weight and skin colour.With #TheBeautyTestStopsWithMe, Dove aims to redefine marriage statements this year, transforming “marriage statements” into “mother statements”.
These “mothermonials” are comprehensive accounts of a daughter’s personality, preferences, achievements and ambitions, and are intended to challenge the appearance-based mentality.
As part of this initiative, Dove has released four films that emerged from conversations with four mothers from across the country – Subhashani, Sudarshana, Ritu and Monica.
Dove has partnered with Media House and Mindshare to use artificial intelligence to enable mothers and daughters to write customised mother-monials. The platform aims to connect grooms and brides based on their education, hobbies and quirks, rather than height, weight and skin colour.
In addition to this, the Dove Self-Esteem Project (DSEP) in partnership with UNICEF aims to reach more than 23 million boys and girls in schools in India by 2026.
Elaborating further, Harman Dhillon, Executive Director, Hindustan Unilever and General Manager, Beauty & Wellbeing, Unilever South Asia, said, “Dove’s mission is to enable the next generation to grow up with confidence, self-esteem and a positive relationship with the way they look. Through these campaigns, Dove has been inspiring and provoking the country to end beauty tests for two years. In 2024, we continue our efforts by encouraging mothers to lead the change and encourage their daughters to challenge the very format of the CV that is the root cause of beauty-based bias. We aim to reinvent the traditional marriage ritual into an empowering ‘mothermonial’ that encourages society to see their daughters beyond stereotypes. Through this campaign and the Dove Self-Esteem Project, Dove is committed to addressing biases and taking concrete action to inspire body confidence in young girls and women.”
Zenobia Pithawala, senior executive creative director and Mihir Chanchani, executive creative director, Ogilvy added, “Even today, parents in our country put out matrimonial ads and resumes for their marriage-age daughters. If someone is tall, slim and fair, ugly peeks out in the first two lines. At Dove, we approached mothers who wanted their daughters’ matrimonial ads to be different. Mothers of India worked with us to write matrimonial ads that were free of beauty bias. We brought mothers to the forefront and protected every daughter in India from ugly beauty tests. This was the beginning of the change from Matrimonial to Mothermonial.”
