ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the Russian version of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and the audience’s reactions to it. It demonstrates the versatility and richness of cultural approaches to marketing problems. Marketing communication professionals know that advertising is one of the critical marketing communication tools in global competition. It makes the brand visible and distinct through carefully designed brand identity. The foundation for Hofstede’s cultural dimensions construct was the study in work-related values across countries. The data below is taken from several Russian internet forums and articles describing the public perception and reception of the Dove marketing effort. The images of real beauty for Russian women were embodied by representations of a freckled woman, a moderately corpulent young woman and an older woman, which slightly deviated from standardized glossy beauty images. Pre-revolutionary Russia was patriarchal; the public sphere belonged to males, while the private was the female realm.
