Dove’s campaign redefines beauty in the age of AI with “The Code”

Dove’s campaign adapts its “Real Beauty” to counter AI-generated beauty ideals.

Dove is undoubtedly one of the most impactful brands in advertising. Its “Real Beauty” campaign, launched over 20 years ago, forever redefined the way brands talk about female beauty.

A concept of beauty that has been altered and disrupted by the rise of artificial intelligence, which now generates unrealistic beauty standards on social media. In its latest campaign, Dove aims to teach AI what real beauty truly looks like.

The Code – Dove

“Dove Real Beauty redefined for the AI Era” is the title of the Dove campaign created by Mindshare New York. This piece won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.

The ad shows how artificial intelligence can perpetuate stereotypical female aesthetics, pushing an unattainable perfection and further harming the self-esteem of young women. To counter this, Dove wants to train AI to reflect all types of beauty.

This is a key move, as it is estimated that 90% of online content will be AI-generated. In response, the brand has pledged never to use AI to create or retouch the models featured in its advertising campaigns.

The brand released a statement: “In a world where artificial intelligence has the potential to shape the beauty ideals of tomorrow, it is our responsibility to ensure that those ideals reflect reality. We will continue to champion real beauty — no filters, no distortions — and we will never use AI to create or alter images of women in our campaigns.”

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