Dove has released another ad beauty, this time in Sweden and from the perspective of three women who are blind. From their perspective, beauty is a feeling brought on by actions and circumstances rather than aesthetics. Though they share some personal criticisms about their own appearances, all three equate beauty with feeling strong and energetic, with having fun, with being in love.
We've covered the "Real Beauty" campaign in depth, and many of the familiar criticisms apply. Even putting aside how being owned by Unilever complicates things, so many of Dove's ads reinforce the idea that women are dominated by insecurity about their looks and need to be corrected by someone else (say, a company trying to sell them something).
There's less of that here, though, and overall I think Dove is slowly listening and adapting to criticisms of its approach. Diversity is still a problem, and beauty as an aspirational value remains a thorny issue (albeit an unavoidable one for any beauty products brand). But promoting beauty as an internally generated feeling is a step in the right direction.