Thread by @finshots

Picture your body wash bottle. (Seriously, do it.)

Now imagine this bottle, but in different body shapes of women.

Sounds absurd, right? Well, Dove did it.

This is the story of Dove's disastrous marketing campaign.👇

In 2004, Dove launched its “Real Beauty” campaign- an emotional marketing play promoting self-love and celebrating “real” women. It was super successful, increasing Dove’s sales by multiples.

To promote the same, Dove rolled out “Real Beauty” bottles in 2017.

These were limited-edition body washes designed to mimic 7 different body types of women. Tall, short, curvy, hourglass- you name it, you got it.

“Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes” was the idea. Dove wanted to inculcate a sense of inclusivity, wanted women to feel confident when they picked a bottle representing their body shape.
But…things went south.

Rather than feeling body positive, women felt body shamed. After all, who wants to be reminded of their body shape every time they visit a grocery store?

Some felt categorized, some feared the judgment of cashiers and some began comparing themselves to other women.

And can you guess which bottles were the most viable? The hourglass ones. Their design provided the best grip, almost implying their superiority over other sizes.

Thus, Dove unintentionally ended up promoting the exact opposite of its vision.

Soon enough, the Real Beauty bottles were called off as Twitteratis showed zero mercy trolling the brand.

Good thing, only 6800 of them were ever produced.

Do you know of other well-intentioned campaigns that backfired?

Let us know in the comments!