Beauty is a good thing. At first, one might be thinking, "Wait a minute, doesn't Dove sell beauty products? Wouldn't that be a bit hypocritical?" But the thing is, Dove really sells care products. Products that just help us take care of what we have and who we already are. It isn't pressuring us to drop 10 pounds or cover our "real beauty" with the latest winter colours. In ads everywhere, we see models who are probably near size 0's who have glamorous hair and make-up. But in the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty ads, we see real women with their real beauty.
To the right, we see a beautiful model with the classic "smoky eyes" and a high-fashion up-do. Ask any woman on the street, or even just look out on the street, how many women do you see how look like that? Females get pressured into looking this certain way, so that those who achieve it feel some kind of exclusive beauty. The thing is though, most women already have a different kind of beauty, almost the same way a flower can look pretty without having to airbrush it (perhaps that was a bad example, but you get the point, right?).
Basically, I'm just glad someone high up in the media advertising hierarchy is realizing that it's time to stop asking women to be who they're not and to remind them that they're already beautiful.
Now for a not-so-great campaign. The Axe body deodorant brand has always played situations to make women seem helpless to their products' effects. They always make men seem like women just can't resist them because of the spray. In the Axe Effect campaign, the guy is on some remote island and of course, hundreds of bikini-clad women are stampeding and swimming oceans to get to him. Something I noticed at the end of the commercial were the words "Spray more, get more" and that reminded me of this next commercial, an older campaign for the Click spray.
At first, I honestly couldn't tell what the commercial was about because I didn't see Affleck use any products really. But the whole underlying message of all these Axe campaigns are that they're sprays and such will make countless numbers of women desire them, again objectifying them. Sure, there is some ironic humour in the Click ad because the actor got 1000 flirts less thant he dorky-looking guy, but it's almost like encouraging guys to just count women off as flirts, or just count them for their attractiveness.
So do I think the parent company should have responsibility in what the branches are preaching? Yes. It's just a plain contradiction. That's all I can say really. To be a company people can believe, you need to have constant standards.
1 comments:
I agree with everything you have said here. I never thought of Dove as any more then a company with a great twist to selling beauty products. But now I realize Dove sells care products, not beauty products. I do also think the Axe campaign is just ridiculous. But the one thing which stood out to me in your post here was your last sentence; "To be a company people can believe, you need to have constant standards". I found this line quite true. I like what you have said.
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