Dove’s latest social experiment: Love it or hate it?

In its latest online campaign or what some have called “reality prank”, Dove has been creating another of its social experiments on women’s esteem.While its “Dove Beauty Sketches” won many hearts, this newest one, “Patches” has been having a mixed response, with its critics going down the far end to slam the ad for tricking the women involved.The latest experiment has an “authority figure” in the form of psychologist Ann Kearney- who studies body image issues. She brings in women to talk about their insecurities about their looks and gives them a “revolutionary" beauty drug which works like a nicotine patch and asks them to document the results.Watch what happens here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGDMXvdwN5cPublished on 9 April, the video already has more than 13 million views.Dove’s Beauty Sketches, run around the same time last year, stands now at more than 62 million views.According the Globe Mail, the current campaign is the largest global launch ever for Dove in terms of the number of countries – 58.While Dove’s social experiments have gone viral, its critics slam it for enforcing the idea that a woman’s esteem is built on her looks. Dove’s idea is to market based on the concept that beauty is a state of mind.While marketers are increasingly believing that brands need a sense of purpose, executing has been challenging.Critics aside, will this campaign take off in terms of business results for Dove?