Purpose campaigns are evaluated by aggregate metrics that cannot distinguish structural success from surface popularity. This paper decomposes Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" (2004-2026) across eight perceptual dimensions at four temporal cross-sections. Four observer cohorts – Purpose-Aligned, Product-Pragmatist, Social-Signal Reader, and Skeptic-Critic – receive identical signals but form structurally different brand convictions. Five propositions address dimensional creation, observer heterogeneity, portfolio interference, counter-cultural decay, and dimensional specificity. The framework provides advertising managers with tools for predicting campaign longevity, identifying portfolio interference risks, and designing dimensional activation strategies. Independent quantitative evidence from a 21,601-call AI observer study (Zharnikov 2026v) supports the cohort-divergence and Patagonia-as-exception findings, providing the case study with an empirical anchor across a controllable observer population. Includes paper.yaml (Paper Spec v0.1.0) – a machine-readable specification of the paper's claims, assumptions, and dependencies. See https://github.com/spectralbranding/paper-spec for the standard.
Dmitry Zharnikov (Wed,) studied this question.