In a café, we witness several conversations between two friends. Every time, one woman appears to be verbally abusing the other. Other women in the café react in surprise at overhearing this socially inappropriate conversation, what they don’t know is that these two friends are actually two actresses. The by-standers reactions become more shocked as they gradually realize the brutal words being said are actually their own thoughts. A few days earlier, those same women were street-cast and asked to participate in an study where they write in a notebook all the positive and negative thoughts they had about their beauty over the course of a few days. Called back to a café for a “supposed” follow-up interview, they overhear their own inner thoughts being replayed out loud in public, making them realize how violent and harsh their thoughts are. The film ends on a positive message, questioning the way women speak to themselves and inviting women to share their positive thoughts.

In the highly competitive French beauty market, where beauty and fashion is deeply rooted in the cultural heritage, Dove lacked differentiation. Our challenge was to reignite the appeal of the brand in the eyes of French women for whom beauty is a complex matter: French women feel the pressure to live up to a treasured, yet hard to achieve cultural heritage of beauty icons the world looks up to.

The research conducted in France by Dove, with Harris Interactive, reveals that only 1 out 10 French women have positive thoughts about their beauty and only 3% finds themselves really beautiful. Even more than other women French women are extremely harsh self-critics and at the same time it is very hard for a French woman to publically express that she is beautiful.