“No more kawaii standards” draws backlash in Japan.

In 2004, personal care brand Dove launched the Dove Self-Esteem Project to empower women to love themselves at any shape, age or size, and it’s since grown to become the largest body-confidence education provider in the world, expanding its reach to over 153 countries, including Japan.

Its latest awareness campaign in Japan, however, hit a snag because although it aimed to denigrate local beauty standards and ideals for the betterment of women, it worked to aggravate a number of locals instead.

According to Dove, the “No more kawaii standards” campaign is “a wake-up call against ideals of beauty that can have a negative impact on children“, with its purpose being to foster a greater sense of self-confidence in young people by encouraging them to disagree with these ideals. The brand is going above and beyond in spreading the message, with a series of ads being posted in one of Tokyo’s busiest locations — on the stairs at the Tokyu Denentoshi Line platform at Shibuya Station.

▼ Dove Japan shared this image of the ads at Shibuya Station on its official Twitter account.

The tweet includes a call to action, with a message that reads:

“Ads have now been put up at Shibuya Station! What they highlight is the unnecessary beauty standards that are being spread on social media. Remarks like these are the root cause that cause every girl to lose her sense of attractiveness and self-confidence. Please repost this tweet with the hashtag #カワイイに正解なんてない ! Let’s use our voices to say NO to beauty standards!”

On the surface, this all seems like a positive message of empowerment — “カワイイに正解なんてない” translates as “There’s no right answer to what’s cute” — but what’s got locals up in arms are the phrases printed on the ads, which are also included in the commercial posted on YouTube.

▼ The tie-in commercial for the campaign.

What these messages contain are the actual beauty standards that Dove says young women should stand up against. However, by specifically naming these beauty ideals, the campaign works to draw attention to them, and many people are saying they wouldn’t have known of these standards had it not been for the campaign.

Looking at each phrase in detail, they read as follows:

▼ “Supe 110 (‘Spec 110’) — the numerical value of one’s height minus one’s weight. It is considered a standard for determining whether or not one is thin.”

▼ “Jinchuu Mijikai (‘Short Philtrum’) — the groove between the nose and upper lip. It’s said that the length of this groove affects how cute someone is”.

▼ “Me to Me no Aida 4 Centimetres (‘Space Between the Eyes 4 Centimetres [1.6 inches]’) — A criterion for determining whether eyes are far apart or not.”

▼ “E Line — The straight line connecting the nose and chin. It’s considered the standard for beauty in the profile.”

▼ “Thigh Gap Ari (‘Thigh Gap Exists’) — This refers to the gap between the thighs. It is considered the standard for beautiful legs.”

▼ “Buccal Corridor Nashi (‘No Buccal Corridor’) — The shadow between the corners of your mouth and teeth when you smile. It’s considered the standard for a good smile.”

▼ “Chuuganmen 6 Centimetres (‘Mid-Face 6 Centimetres’) — The length from under the eyes to the lips. A criterion for determining whether or not your face is small.”

▼ “Enshingao / Kyuushingao (‘Centrifugal Face / Centripetal Face’) — A term used to describe facial features that are out of sync with the golden ratio.”

▼ “Deme (‘Protruding Eyes’) — Eyes in which the eyeball is positioned relatively forward.”

▼ “Kao no Ookisa 17 Centimetres (“Face Size 17 Centimetres’) — It is commonly believed that a face size of 17 centimetres or less is considered small.”

Well, if you weren’t feeling self-conscious about your appearance before, you likely are now after reading through all those beauty standards. It’s an unusual list that many adults in Japan were surprised to learn about, spurring comments like:

“Putting out ads like this only serves to spread these beauty standards around the world.”
“Who thinks this will boost their self-esteem? If I saw such full-on statements printed in big characters while commuting to school, I’d be so depressed.”
“This will have the opposite effect of fostering self-confidence in young women.”
“Please stop these ads. They only encourage lookism.”
“Don’t they realise that by making ideal values ​​visible, it pushes people suffering from lookism even further into a corner?”
“If I hadn’t seen this, I wouldn’t have known that a mid-face size of 6.5 centimetres is ideal.”

In Dove’s defence, every poster includes the hashtag “There’s no right answer to what’s cute” and crosses out the beauty standard above it to encourage people to buck the trends. And while many adults may not be aware of these ridiculous-sounding beauty standards, it’s likely that many young women in junior high and high schools, the target market for this campaign, are very aware of these standards, which are prevalent on social media.

Still, in bringing these ideals to light, it does serve to spread awareness about them, and the public backlash against the campaign indicates that a more sensitive approach may have been more effective. Perhaps by alluding to beauty ideals without adding the numerical values by which they’re gauged, or giving them less credence with a smaller font, Dove could’ve helped the message land better with the public and draw attention to its potential to effect change rather than become the news story itself.

Sources: Unilever, Dove Japan, Twitter/@Dove_JP via Jin, Otakomu
Top image: YouTube/Dove JPダヴ
Insert images: Dove Japan
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