Dove body-shaped shower gel bottles ridiculed online

Image source, Unilever

Dove's range of body-shaped bottles, released as part of their "Real Beauty" campaign, have been ridiculed online.

The body washes are designed to reflect the "one of a kind" body shapes of their consumers.

"Each bottle evokes the shapes, sizes, curves and edges that combine to make every woman their very own limited edition," Dove said in a statement.

But people on social media have described the range as a "ridiculous idea".

The new bottles have been sent to "influencers" and fans but it's not clear if the products will be available to the general public.

Dove recently launched their "Real Beauty Pledge", a set of three statements to mark 60 years since the launch of the brand.

They say they will "always feature real women, never models", "portray women as they are in real life" and "help girls build body confidence".

Previous marketing campaigns have met with more success.

The Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most viewed advert in 2013.

The video shows women being asked questions about their appearance by a sketch artist, who draws them based on their (often deprecating) descriptions of themselves.

Once the women leave the room, a second group of people arrive and tell the sketch artist what the women "really" look like.

One YouTube viewer wrote in 2016: "I ended up with my eyes watering because it's so true".

Not everyone has taken issue with the body-shaped bottles.

But for many others, it was still a joking matter.

In a statement to Newsbeat, Sophie Galvani, Dove Global Brand Vice President said: "We use real women in all our campaigns because they represent the real beauty diversity in society. We wanted to take this a step further into the products themselves and have a bit of fun with them.

"The custom bottles of different shapes and sizes reflect the beauty in diversity through visual representation and are designed to spark a lively debate and discussion about what real beauty means."

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