recently concluded dove contest, yahoo management speaketh

Hi Pramod,

I don't think Dove wanted us to write about fairness cream or their products. If you do a little research on Real beauty's campaign about dove..It started in year 2004.  The campaign has been focused not on the product, but on a way to make women feel beautiful regardless of their age and size. They even started a "Real Beauty" school program to give teenagers that confidence boost they might feel because of the changing apperance.

You'd be amazed to see that many students have even made project report on this campaign and there is vast amount of material about its history and how they went ahead with campaign, available on the internet. Below is a snippet of a document I found on internet: 

Advertising:

• Dove launched a global advertising campaign in October 2004 questioning whether “model” attributes, such as youth, slimness, and symmetrical features, are required for beauty - or if they are completely irrelevant to it. The ads each presented an image of a woman whose appearance differed from the stereotypical physical ideal, and asked the reader/viewer to judge the woman's looks by checking off a box.

o “Wrinkled? Wonderful?” featured Irene Sinclair, 95, of London, England with a wrinkled face and asked: “Will society ever accept old can be beautiful?”

o “Gray? Gorgeous?” featured Merlin Glozer, 45, of London, England with a natural mane of gray hair and asks: “Why aren't women glad to be gray?”

o “Oversized? Outstanding?” featured Tabatha Roman, 34, of New York, NY a plus-size woman and asked: “Does true beauty only squeeze into a size 6?”

o “Half empty? Half full?” featured Esther Poyer, 35, of London, England with small breasts and asked: “Does sexiness depend on how full your cups are?”

o “Flawed? Flawless?” featured Leah Sheehan, 22, of London, England with freckles and asked: “Does beauty mean looking like everyone else?”

There is some amount of information available on wikipedia too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_Campaign_for_Real_Beauty

yeah..I feel that they should be more vigilant in thinking out of the box and clearly stating what they exactly want from a contest. Otherwise, we are full of dreamers here, and whose imagination will take him where..no one knows!! :D

yeah..I feel that they should be more vigilant in thinking out of the box and clearly stating what they exactly want from a contest. Otherwise, we are full of dreamers here, and whose imagination will take him where..no one knows!! :D

I dont feel the same way . And I havent heard this women's talk or statement so all that I write is based upon the fact that I am assuming she has spoken about fairness etc., if she has not - my advance apologies.

If it is the case that beauty and fairness were the criteria then I dont think they would have made the winners, the winners. Lots of winning entries focussed on the inner beauty and not makeup or beauty creams.

Having said that I do believe one's ideas and one's thoguhts on anything are unique and should be respected. What beauty means to me can differ from it means to my brother and that can differ from what it means to this particular person in question.

@ Kimi- You have done a great job with your blog post and also bringing out your views on Forum. 

I did not start blogging for the sake of participating in contests. They come my way as a bonus. I don't think I feel something misleading in the topic. If you feel real beauty is nature, bird or mountains; you are welcome to say that. If you do not win the contest no bad feelings. The judge had different perception of beauty. That is it. What do we lose? Nothing. 

Me being a breast cancer survivor, I look at the scar the surgery has left behind and think it is sign of life which I have now. If I express that it is fine, but no way I can expect everyone (even those who have been through cancer) to agree and accept my view.

I don't think that just because the phrasing of the topic was not crystal clear will harm the reputation of big-wigs like yahoo, dove or indiblogger in anyway.  

Wow !!  Thanks Kimi. Coming from a person I admire it means a lot. Almost as close to winning a contest ;) . LOL.

When I was typing , three more posts have been posted. Poorvi, your blog was great. You are right. We are to express our thoughts and see if the judge is thinking like us. Yes, good luck. No, better luck next time. Sure to be lucky you need to write beautiful posts too. 

Once back in school, I had done an excellent essay on God. I was frank that his presence on earth has done more harm then benefits for human beings. Creating fights, dividing people in name of caste and religion, blah blah blah. Finally I ended saying that other than mother Therasa's faith for an example we cannot say much about the benefit of his presence here. I was in convent and got 0 for the essay. The nun did not agree with me. But even to this day I still believe it and find it to be an excellent essay. No regrets. 

Atleast from now, IndiBlogger should should state a clear description of the contest and not publish just those few sentences the sponsorers have asked to. If it is done, every interpretation of the contest should be taken into consideration for the prizes.

somehow i feel the interpretation doesnt matter, only the content does! The winners had written entries as per their own interpretations because beauty may mean different things to different people. And i guess that is what Dove symbolises too. Hence you dont get to see models or actresses in their adverts and commercials. I had read an article long back on this as to why Dove considers real women for their ads and not models or celebs. Congrats to all the winners!!!

I think that the contest topic should be crystal clear to the participants but the contest is now over and was a huge success by any stretch of imagination.
But we must now move forward and hopefully we have learnt something from this incident ( the fact that the topic for the hp color contest was revised bears testimony to that fact )...
I am sure that in the future the Indiblogger team will put up in detail what is exactly required from the participants.

I felt the title was just  right! But to each his own...and lets hope even the Indiblogger team clears up the confusion.

Sad by reading the statment by yahoo team member. If that is so, why the name was "Real beauty."?  

I was not in the contest, so don't know much what happened !

Congrats to all the winners.

As for myself...I feel the contest was a real success!! And all the winning articles focussed on real beauty from their own point of view...i feel they all deserve the win!!

About the topic being vague..well i dont think so...people have written about various aspects of beauty and all of them cannot win...jus that the winners had presented their point of view in a real beautiful way appealing to the judges which might have been a little more better than the other posts!! That is what happens for all the writing competitions right?

Myself I feel very much happy because, this was the second contest i participated in Indiblogger and for the first time my post got so much of exposure... I am sure that must have happened for so many people here. So it was a big platform for all of us right?

i agree with Cindrella. the contest indeed gave us much exposure and a free flight to our imagination on such a topic. I had just written what cae to my mind first after knowing the topic.and am sure that many other bloggers have done so..so whoever wins,what matters is that all bloggers could come up with such great and unique ideas on a trivial idea called beauty.

I can understand your feelings, Pramod. But I guess contests sponsored by companies expect posts that connect to their brand. That is why I was always reluctant to participate in the indiblogger contests. But I participated in this contest after I saw one of my friend's post which touched a really different aspect. So I thought it is ok to approach the topic from a general way. Guess that was not so. After all there ain't any such thing as free lunches. Dove and HP and Dell are here to promote their products and not to recognize general writing talent. Their core busines is not publishing, is it? But I look to various online memes for inspiration to write most of which have no prize and no contest even. So I am happy I got a meme to write on. That is how I see it.

I feel if the organisers wanted the skin or fairness to be highlighted in the contest posts, it is shocking and apalling, it is the signal that aparthied is back in India. I am happy that i did not participate in this contest despite voting for many, thanks for highlighting the issue of the sponsorers what they expected ?

There was one more thing that i didnt understand. On what basis was People's Choice winner was choosen? If IndiVine votes didnt count, which votes did? Where were these votes to be accumulated?

Anyways, the contest is over. Congratulations to all Winners.

I read thrugh the whole thread and as usual, we had multiple views. As @Arti said very clearly, the next contest had got the basic error corrected. Hope we can continue our good work

Life is beautiful, but only beauty cannot be life. Anyways i have read the perception of everyone who have posted their comments. I am waiting for the official take on the subject matter.