Shonda Rhimes and Dove are setting out on a search to tell the real-life stories of “Real Beauty.”
Pegged to its 60th anniversary, Dove is teaming with the prolific producer behind Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder for a new campaign to give voice to real women as part of the brand’s future advertising.
To that end, Dove is launching Real Beauty Productions in tandem with Rhimes. The content studio will give women and girls the opportunity to share personal stories that expand the definition of beauty and work directly with Rhimes to bring them to life in film. Starting March 30, women are encouraged to share their #RealBeauty story on DoveRealBeauty.com. Select concepts will join Rhimes on-set to direct their own stories.
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To hear Rhimes tell it, Dove has never once used a model in any of its advertising campaigns, opting to feature real women. The showrunner pointed to a recent study that found seven out of 10 women agree that they do not see themselves reflected in ads, movies and television and she hopes the Dove campaign — as well as her shows — continue to make a difference.
“They always use real women [in ads], but they never really told the stories of real women,” Rhimes tells THR. “I love that they wanted to do something that involved storytelling. I love that they wanted to give voice to real women. You don’t see a lot of real-looking women on television and we work hard to sort of try to fix that and make that happen, but there’s not that many. … The idea that they want to help women redefine what beauty is, is cool to me. That’s a perfect thing that should be happening. The idea that there is a definition right now that everybody is obsessed with needs to expand and change.”
Watch Rhimes describe the partnership in the video below.
