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persuasion notebook

A sketch of a woman's face, drawn from the description of a stranger who had just met her by a police sketch artist, from a video produced for Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty.

Persuasion Notebook offers quick hits on the business of persuasion from The Globe and Mail's marketing and advertising reporter, Susan Krashinsky. Read more on The Globe's marketing page and follow Susan on Twitter @Susinsky.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – except when that eye is looking in the mirror.

The latest work for the Dove brand aims to show women how different their perceptions of how they look are from how others perceive them.

In the striking new video released on Sunday, women are asked to describe themselves to a FBI-trained forensic artist, who cannot see them, to come up with the type of composite sketches usually used in police investigations. The artist then does a series of second sketches, based on the descriptions of the same women from strangers who have just met them. The women are then shown the results, to see just how different their critical views of themselves were compared with how others see them.

The video got noticed on social media sites early this week.

It is yet another instalment in Dove's long-running Campaign for Real Beauty, perhaps the most famous of which was its Evolution video by Ogilvy & Mather Toronto, which won two Grand Prix at the Cannes advertising festival in 2007.

Last month, Ogilvy Toronto released a new campaign focusing on the culture of Photoshop alterations in beauty advertisements.

The newest work is not Canadian but was done by Ogilvy's Brazil office.

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