Unilever-owned brand Dove has announced the release of its No Digital Distortion Mark.
The new initiative hopes to promote body confidence in women and girls due to roll out globally from July.
By January 2019, the brand hopes to have the mark infiltrated into all of its imagery across print, digital and social.
Jess Weiner, Cultural Expert and Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California, said: “When content in the media is not reflective of reality, it has a profound negative effect on the viewer.
“By viewing unrealistic and unachievable beauty images it create an unattainable goal which leads to feelings of failure. This is especially true of young girls who have grown up in a world of filters and airbrushing.”
The project joins the brand’s Self-Esteem Project, which aims to counter the negative influence of social media on women and encourages other brands to take action.
Earlier this year, the brand partnered with Cartoon Network and animated television series Steven Universe to promote body confidence and self-esteem in young people as part of the project.
Body image expert, Phillippa Diedrechs, said: “Through the work of the Dove Self-Esteem project we teach children to question what they see in the media and not to take everything at face value.”
She added: “Brands can do more to showcase reality and take this unnecessary pressure away. But doing so we can have a positive impact on the lives of young girls.”
The mark is also an extension of Dove’s Real Beauty Pledge, set up in 2017, to never use retouched images.
Dove’s Global VP, Sophie Galvani, added: “The mark will help women identify reality and relieve some of the pressures to look a certain way, which is why we have created a new Evolution Film which reveals the extent of digital distortions and manipulations that takes place in media and advertising, and brings to life the issue that women experience.”
