Communication, Culture & Critique ISSN 1753-9129 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Branding Relations: Mother–Daughter Discourse on Beauty and Body in an Israeli Campaign by Dove Sigal Barak-Brandes 1,2 & Einat Lachover 1,2 1 The School of Media Studies, College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon LeZion, Israel 2 School of Communication, Sapir Academic College, Sderot, Israel In March 2013, Unilever Israel, owner of the Dove brand, launched a new campaign calling for a dialogue between mothers and their adolescent daughters around the issue of self-esteem and body image. Te Israeli campaign was part of the global “Campaign for Real Beauty” launched by Unilever in 2004. Te Israeli campaign was run primarily on 2 Internet platforms that appeal to women, and was based mainly on the talk of “ordinary” mothers and daughters on online videos and blogs—ostensibly personal yet produced by advertisers. Based on discourse analysis and critical examination of the consumerist and postfeminist context in which the campaign was produced, this article explores how the mother – daughter relationship suggests a new sphere for processes of branding. Keywords: Self-Esteem, Body Image, Branding, Authenticity, Mother–Daughter Relations, Dove Campaign, Commodity Activism. doi:10.1111/cccr.12111 In March 2013, Unilever Israel, owner of the Dove brand of personal beauty products, launched a new campaign that called for mothers and their adolescent daughters to talk with one another about the issue of self-esteem and body image. Te cam- paign was based on perceptions regarding the centrality of the mother–daughter relationship both in the context of girls’ body image and identity development (Maor, 2012) and as a unique site in which girls learn what proper femininity and the proper feminine appearance are (Borello, 2006). Te campaign, which lasted for 6 months, was run primarily on two Internet platforms targeted at women: Onlife (http://www.onlife.co.il) and Saloona (http://saloona.co.il/ishamulmaraa). Saloona and Onlife are content and current events sites for women that deal with a wide vari- ety of issues, such as society, economics, politics, fashion, food, and gossip. Although Corresponding author: Sigal Barak-Brandes; e-mail: brandes1@zahav.net.il Communication, Culture & Critique (2015) © 2015 International Communication Association 1