Critics and defenders have both pointed out that one ad campaign seeking to redefine beauty is unlikely to solve a widespread social problem of women and girls feeling physical insecurities. However, women in the target audience expressed mixed responses. Dr. Carolyn Coker Ross at Psych Central estimated 80 percent of American women feel dissatisfied with their bodies. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders cited a 1991 study estimating 81 percent of 10-year-old girls were afraid of becoming "fat".

The Dove Campaign was one of the first campaigns considered as going "viral", a relatively new phenomenon in 2004. Ad Age ranked the campaign No. 1 in a list of the "Top Ad Campaigns of the 21st Century". Evolution won two Cannes Lions Grand Prix awards. Katy Young at The Daily Telegraph called the Real Beauty Sketches marketing campaign as being "one campaign that will make you think, and hopefully, feel more beautiful." Nina Bahadur at HuffPost interviewed a Dove spokesperson who said Dove seeks to bring more awareness of beauty standards to women of different ages and cultural backgrounds.

Critics, on the other hand, believe that the campaign focuses too greatly on the physical aspect of beauty instead of other forms of self-worth. Ann Friedman of The Cut argued, "These ads still uphold the notion that, when it comes to evaluating ourselves and other women, beauty is paramount. The goal shouldn't be to get women to focus on how we are all gorgeous in our own way. It should be to get women to do for ourselves what we wish the broader culture would do: judge each other based on intelligence and wit and ethical sensibility, not just our faces and bodies." Tanzina Vega at The New York Times interviewed a 24-year-old who noted about the marketing that "at the heart of it all is that beauty is still what defines women. It is a little hypocritical". Erin Keane at Salon argued that Dove was "peddling the same old beauty standards as empowerment".

Others expressed concerns that while Dove portrays their models as unedited and "real", the images have actually been photoshopped to smooth the appearance of the women's skin, hide wrinkles and blemishes, fix stray hairs, etc. Photo retoucher Pascal Dangin of Box Studios told The New Yorker he edited the photos, saying "Do you know how much retouching was on that?" Kate Fridkis at Psychology Today noted that the models were mostly white, thin, and young. Fridkis also criticized Dove for patronizing women about their physical insecurities while being part of an industry that encourages women to find self-worth in their appearances.

The campaign has been criticized on the grounds that Unilever also produces Glow & Lovely, a skin-lightening product marketed at dark-skinned women in several countries. Unilever brand Lynx's advertising campaign contradicted the sentiment of the Campaign for Real Beauty. Moreover, Unilever owns Axe hygiene products, which are marketed to men using overtly sexualized women, and SlimFast diet bars; however, Will Burns at Forbes called such criticism "irrelevant", arguing that consumers would not be able to recognize that these brands shared a parent company.

• Etcoff, Nancy; Orbach, Susie; Scott, Jennifer; D’Agostino, Heidi (September 2004). "The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report" (PDF). Unilever. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 May 2012.