This drives me crazy
By · Oct 03 2011We all love Dove’s Real Beauty campaign right?
Unilever owns both Dove and Axe. And we’ve all seen how Axe ads play up the stereotype of men being mindless, sex-hungry pigs. Think I’m exaggerating? I found this link to the 10 worst Axe commercials.
So are we selling real beauty or are we selling to a demographic that cares about real beauty?
Dove may care about real beauty — they are launching serious initiatives and creating partnerships with organizations that don’t have motives like selling product. But you’d think if they really cared, they would work to stop perpetuating stereotypes too.
Isn’t it ads like Axe that narrow the definition of beauty that make us need campaigns like Dove to broaden it?
Another one. H&M partners with UNICEF to help educate children in impoverished countries. But pretty campaigns don’t hide that H&M’s clothes are made by women and children in horrible conditions. In December, 21 workers died in a fire at a factory making H&M clothing. There was no fire extinguisher available.
Their clothes are cheap for a reason.
Look how cute these ethnically-diverse-on-purpose kids look in their clothes made by other children. At least those children might get to go to school now.
There are many more double standards out there. It’s a conflict. I love H&M — and they are often awarded for their anti-pollution efforts and use of organic cotton. But every time I walk into a store these days, all I can think of is “what am I really being sold?”
Purchasing behavior is so much more than “see product, pick it up, buy it.” We are sold a brand, a cause, an element that pulls at our heart and elicits support. Even your yogurt will donate to charity — if you make the effort to mail the lid back to them. The Yoplait campaign kills me. They know you bought the yogurt, why not donate a portion of proceeds? Nope, please mail the dirty lid back. Cost of postage is .44, the amount donated by Yoplait is .10.
But what about when the company sells values that are really the result of a market research study that says “your customers like these charities, partner with them!” What’s next after that?
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Hey Nat, love that you spark thinking beyond the surface. In the case of yoplait, I think there may be a reason behind collecting tin foil for charity. I think a lot to do with it is psychological. If I had nothing to collect and I cared for that charity. Why would I buy the yogurt? I may just go with the competitor because Yoplait wouldn’t know if that I didn’t buy their brand. Yoplait can still pledge the $ but to prove something in sales, they have nothing to show their board the reasoning behind giving $, Yoplait is hoping you collect multiple lids to offset the postage stamp cost. I used to have to count school boxtops for General Mills food stuff – yep I cut those things off Totino’s Pizza Rolls (are they good for you- nope). Companies love cause marketing, it is a feel good approach to share your product while doing good for mankind. I wonder (I don’t have stats) if there is a correlation between the two (sales and giving).
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Ugh I totally agree with you. I was complaining about the Yoplait lids campaign the other day. It’s just an excuse to donate less money. They could offer to donate .10 for every yogurt sold, which would be easier for everyone. But instead they make people mail lids. And if you read the fine print they are usually only donating up to a certain amount anyway.
I wrote a little bit about the clothes thing once: (http://blueberriesforme.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/abuse/) I was talking about the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and how it should make us think about how we perpetuate abuse in our own lifestyles. Clothes is something I really struggle with. I like to think “Well, I just can’t afford to buy clothes like American Apparel. But then what you’re saying is “I can’t afford to pay people a living wage. Other people should have to suffer so I can wear what I want.” You’ve made me want to recommit researching what I buy!
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Jackie, I totally agree with feeling guilty about purchasing clothing from companies that we know engage in poor labor practices (or worse sins). Even though American Apparel is produced in the U.S., they are known to employ illegal immigrants in their Los Angeles factory. Unfortunately, it seems difficult to find companies that produce our favorite goods who don’t engage in some sort of controversial production practices. It’s a sad reality of our times.
Hells bells yes! Love this post – i personally think that the dove/axe thing is pretty revolting. You cant in one breath pretend to care about women and little girls, and one the other, reinforce the very stereotypes you first derided. The pink items for breast cancer are particularly egregrious, since very little money ever actually goes to charity, and of that, even less ever goes to research. Sorry for punctuatiin, in airport coming home from vaca but had to comment
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I personally am not a huge fan of the Dove Real Beauty campaign anyway. See http://main.stylelist.com/2010/06/29/dove-real-women-craigslist-ad-a-mistake-not-approved-says/ for part of the reason why.
While the women they show are larger than typical women in ads, they’re still airbrushed and still fit within a pretty narrow look of beauty. And while I get it, people don’t want to see an add with someone who’s morbidly obese or with a poochy tummy and no hips or whatever, then don’t claim to show real beauty if you’re not going to show the spectrum up female bodies.
The other thing that gets me is that ALL of this, the whole ad campaign, is for the express purpose of selling stuff because we aren’t good enough as is. You need moisturizing body wash because your skin isn’t smooth. It’s great to be big and beautiful, but buy this cellulite cream, because cellulite isn’t okay! You are a great person, but your hair is too flat.
It’s just double speak. Out of one side of their mouths they say, “You are awesome and perfect just the way you are.” and out the other side they say, “But you have these little flaws Dove products could help with.” These Axe ads just show that the Real Beauty campaign is all marketing because if the company ACTUALLY cared about responsible advertising we wouldn’t be having this discussion. And I guess I’m just torn, because it is nice to see some ads with normal-sized people, but it would be nice if women didn’t spend SO MUCH EFFING TIME worrying about body in their hair and makeup and clothes and lotion and moisturizer and and and… And I feel like all these ads do is feed into that.
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It’s all marketing, or malle verter said, branding. Dove’s brand Is warm fuzzies. (I also don’t like that campaign but anyway….) I guess we should understand WHY they give and try to accept it for what it is.
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Maybe better said I mean! I think my autocorrect was in another language!
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I don’t think Dove’s message (to be clear- the one about caring about real beauty, not the hyped up sexism) is hypocritical. Do all the women on here bashing them honestly not buy ANY kind of cosmetic/hygiene/cleansing product? I don’t think it is mutually exclusive to think that beauty can come in all shapes and sizes and forms, and still want to be the best version of yourself that you can be. I am happy with the way I look, but I still don’t like it when I have greasy hair, so I buy shampoo. I don’t like the way my skin feels when it is dry and flaky, so I buy lotion. I can still do all of those things and have good body image and self-esteem.