Personal care brand Dove is leading the Be Real Image pledge in a bid to promote a positive body image and to call on businesses and organizations to do the same.

The pledge is part of a national movement campaigning for the advertising, fashion, music and media industries to show more reality and diversity in their external and internal communications. Likewise, organizations are being called on to ‘reflect diversity and reality in their messages and advertising, and to promote health and wellbeing. It also indicates an intention to promote the Pledge amongst staff, and in external communications to consumers.’

As a voluntary initiative, Dove is calling on businesses to sign up to the pledge, subsequently committing to a ‘responsible portrayal of all people in the media and advertising, and especially women and beauty – taking another important step in fighting body image anxiety in the UK.’

The pledge follows the 2016 Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report, which found that 74 percent of women and 67 percent of girls in the UK think the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty most women can never achieve.

Mark Bleathman, Vice President Personal Care at Unilever UK, said, “For 60 years, Dove has stood for Real Beauty – it only uses real women in its advertising and follows a strict policy on airbrushing and photoshop.
“That’s why we are so passionate about Dove taking a leadership role on the Be Real Body Image Pledge – the time to end body image anxiety is now, and Dove is fully committed to driving change in the UK for the benefit of everyone.”

Companies can show support for the pledge by using the hashtag #PledgeToBeReal.