A Vine video from Dove appears to be very similar to one from a user named Big Red and people have taken notice.
Here is the original, from five months ago:
And here is Dove's, which ran about three days ago:
There are some differences. Big Red's featured a pink flower and narration by a young girl ("Beauty has no definition. It depends on who you are.") Dove's has no narration and no flower.
[seealso slug="dove-photoshop-action"]
However the use of hands to frame the image and the camera's pan led some to cry foul. The original narration also fits thematically with Dove's long-running "Real Beauty" campaign.
I guess there really aren't any similarities @Dove & @funnystudents13 https://t.co/eX1RWQ1uRi https://t.co/iTJXQvnCRq
— Paul Zenisek (@pzenisek) October 3, 2013
Big Red was the winner of a Vine contest held by Meagan Cignoli, who has about 375,000 followers on Vine. Dove may have copied another Cignoli Vine:
Cignoli says she's not mad. "I was angered when I saw the copy of big reds. But after seeing so many people really support us I felt better. My feelings have changed and now I feel compassion for whoever did it. I'm assuming it was someone young and inexperienced who could potentially be facing big problems stemming from this. I do not think it was knowing or intentional on the part of Dove but rather an individual creating for them."
Reps from Unilever, owner of Dove, could not be reached for comment.