Dove brings Real Beauty to the metaverse

Did you know that 62% of women don’t feel represented in video games? That’s about to change if it’s up to Dove. The cosmetics company is expanding their long-running Real Beauty campaign into the virtual world. With Real Virtual Beauty the brand shows the importance of representation, even in the metaverse.

According to Dove, female characters in online games often depict unrealistic beauty standards and are hypersexualised. They say that 74% of women wish that their character would look more like themselves and that’s something the brand also stands behind. More than enough reason to make a change, and what better way to do that than to team up with Unreal Engine to fix the problem at its core. Dove is making its first steps into the digital world, making the 3D world a bit more inclusive.

In the Real Virtual Beauty campaign video, we see how three different, unique women are cloned into a 3D avatar. They share the struggles they encounter when playing video games, such as being able to choose from only two different characters. More importantly, they also tell us what it means to them to see themselves represented in a 3D world. ‘It’s not only about self-esteem, it’s about what you can or cannot do with your life.’

With this new innovation, Dove shows how easy it can be to create realistic and inclusive representation in the metaverse. We see more and more brands entering this new digital world and it remains to be seen whether they will also engage in this way of accurately representing society. In any case, we very much hope they do so that everyone can feel right at home in the metaverse.