Onslaught goes too far
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
I applauded the Dove campaign for real beauty. As a woman and professional. I admire brands with the guts to take a stand. And cheered on their efforts to reach 5 millions girls by 2010 with “feel good about yourself messages” as part of the Self-Esteem Fund. I’m all for loving yourself and feeling comfortable in your own skin despite flaws. As a mother of two teenage daughters, how could I not admire a company standing for self-esteem?
BUT…with the latest film, “Onslaught”, they went too far and lost credibility with me. Celebrating and promoting the concept of self esteem and inner beauty is one thing. Encouraging you to “talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does” is a worthwhile message. But doing it in such a hypocritical and arrogant way is another.
Dove doesn’t stand alone. It’s part of a larger company and consumers know it. Even my 15 year old knows it. Regardless of whether or not people see this as a powerful creative spot (I don’t think it has near the power of the original), using the attack approach against the industry begs the question… do they honestly believe that people will see Dove as “above it all”? When they are in fact part of a large marketing driven company [Unilever] whose own brands have and continue to perpetrate the “beauty industry” images that play right into our insecurities. The same type of images that they use in the film as examples of the exploits.
There’s such irony in the fact that on Unilever’s own site they play to our insecurities in order to hype their beauty products. Like how you can get “Oscar-worthy hair” just like Nicole Kidman, Posh Spice and – oh yeah – Paris Hilton. And let’s not forget that Unilever is a major manufacturer of skin-whitening creams marketed in India (playing to a stereotype that, the lighter your skin, the more beautiful you are). And what about Axe body spray, whose sexist and stupid ads as well as the “humilidating” show, Game Killers, on MTV this year (a production of Axe spray) doesn’t exactly send the message that the Onslaught spot does.
Unilever wants it both ways. To be hero AND benefactor relative to our insecurities. And that’s hard to reconcile.