recently concluded dove contest, yahoo management speaketh
hi friends, I like to draw attention towards the recently concluded yahoo dove real beauty contest. With no prejudice towards winning participants, (congo's to all.) I was amazed at statement of yahoo team member that It was duty of participants to judge what was wanted to be written. they should have taken cue from their real beauty blog and written on skin fairness etc.only.
I am really baffled to see the real beauty perceptions thus desired.
Please friends give your honest opinions as to vague desires are good for contest or bad.
because in the end it is the writer who feels humiliated.
please throw honest light on this intriguing phenomenon as I feel strongly that reputation of indiblogger too gets involved by such acts.
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..at that point I also agree with you. They should not ask us to do all those stuffs and get their perception of real beauty, when they themselves have not described clearly about the topic.
They should have taken care of clearly defining the topic, especially in a case like this where large amount of people from various backgrounds and beliefs are going to participate.
@ Kimi I feel glad to see that you know a great deal about the 'Real Beauty' camapign. But here you need to accept one thing: You knew about it because you run a beauty blog and most probably read as much as you can about beauty on the net.
Actually no..I didn't know about Dove's Real beauty campaign before entering into this contest. I just wanted to know the reason why Dove was hosting such a huge event. There has to be some history to it and then only searched about it!! :)
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.
totally agree with you!! Its beauty according to u contest!!So we need to cater our thoughts on real beauty-For me its in cricket and i wrote that-Its a relative concept and can vary from person to person.Well said Poorviji!
@ 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.
Thank you Farida Jee....And I read your entry...You truly write from your heart, that is so evident. I really feel awesome to be a part of Indiblogger team now, meeting such great writers like you and others here. I've been blogging since 6 years now, but I was always happy in my own small blog, and never knew about such communities.
I agree that for people who don't need to write for the contest, this was something like a topic of free thinking and free choice of sharing their views on real beauty. Your post was amazingly heart touching and one of the best!! :) :) :)
really,i have become a big fan of yours!Thanks to IB for introducing us 2 such intellectual greats in blogosphere!I am learning a lot!!
Regards
DC
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.
well said buddy!! :)
Real Beauty comment :P!
So I can say this in this way............
"Yahoo should have given the meaning of Real Beauty and also what to write!!!!!!!!! "
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!!!
Yeah. And I think its best to leave it at that (especially since the contest is over).
I put up my opinions because they will have more more future projects. Personally that water anti-chlorine campaign and the white pigeon campaign is so felt like a PR spin.
I have read those revised terms just now. I think that my entry is totally unrelated to the contest. I have submitted the entry before the revision. Anyway, I had added an another blog post and a a few readers to my blog. That's sufficient for me.
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.
thanks Mg, very well said. winning or loosing is part of the game in contests, no issues on that front.
what hurts is the rejection of entries on all real beauties posts which saw it in crystal heart or nature, etc. and the meekness in the manner stated by yahoo team member that contestants should have read yahoo beauty blog to see what type of beauty they prefered in posts.
if they stayed mum after the results there wasn't any hurt. but these words when come from the team of organizers, really hurts participants (atleast me ) so I voiced my concerns.
Ya Pg! That's really hurting. I had a quick look on Yahoo real beauty blog. I didn't read it, but seeing it, I was confused a bit. I have read many entries of the contest and they are exceptionally good on Real Beauty concept. And I was surprised and happy to see, so many different and new views. So actually if they really mean 'Real Beuaty' then contest is a huge success. But after listening this by yahoo team member, it's really very hurting.
Thanks for raising the concern too.
If I say more honestly, for bloggers money is not big attraction while participating the contest, but the expression from the heart on the subject is real love. On the other hand, publicity and markteing is the big concern for big companies who create contest.
So they may feel what bloggers feel.
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?
yes ,cinderella ji, it was a grand success, and congos on your win. well deserved one.
keep it up.
Thank u Pramod ji...I won from the point of view that my post got a little more exposure...not as in I won any sponsored prize 
Yes Pramodji!! That part about them saying it was the duty of the participants to visit them and judge accordingly should not have happened!! For all competions, they should be giving the participants clear idea on exactly what is expected from them...Hope Indiblogger makes sure that all the competions would be giving participants clear cut instructions on what to write, what not to write, and the rules to be followed!!
yes cinderella ji, that was my only point. I voiced it on their thread and when didnot receive response, created this thread to voice and get to know if only I am on the wrong.
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.
Arpita ji, great views, thanks.
many thanks @The Fool, for your clear and understanding views.
Being a shareholder of HINDUSTAN UNILEVER i take strong objection to this line of thought, thanks for highlighting the same Pramod Lohia.
Even the so called Miss Universe contest has a motto of Beauty with a purpose promoting the concept that beautiful people should work for the downtrodden or some good cause, not boasting in isolation about being beautiful due to skin colour.
Umesh, I read most of the winning entries and also red Kimi Srivatsava's comment above. They are definitely not giving that kind of a message abot beauty being skin deep. Brands as such never blatantly promote just the product features. Instead they try to create association with that which society consists noble and desirable. So Dove tries to associate its brand with women's inner beauty. So most of the posts that won were posts sharing personal experiences and observations on how beauty is just not skin deep but something of the heart. Thats the kind of emotion Dove wants to associate with its brand. So they rewarded good posts going on the lines.
The issue raised by Pramod was that the topic just used the word beauty ambigously. And the word beauty is by no means limited to women or even humans. One can easily write about nature, works of art etc. or approach the topic from a philosophical answer. Whoever approached the topic from such an an agle were disqualified and that lead to many disappointments as a reading of the topic seemed to suggest such an approach would be relavent to the topic, though if one had taken a cue from who are the sponsors and what they would be expecting, one could have guessed that is not what they may be looking for.
@The Fool, very well clarified.
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 
Hemal, thanks for clear views.
people's choice was on facebook likes, on indieblogger. they were accumulated on indie itself. Kimi ji aced the show with whooping 3000 above likes. congos to her.
I got a meagre 57 likes, highest I could get.
but the charm was great.
YEAH!! GIRL POWA FTW!!! (FTW=For the win)
We need to have a scoreboard (just for the kicks) to see how many men/women win. This way we'll know what it takes to win(?)
Yes, we all are waiting.
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