Most of you have probably seen the new ads for Dove Firming Lotion, the one with 3 or 6 curvy women posing in white undies. Go to www.campaignforrealbeauty.com to see the ad and more info. Personally, I think it’s a great ad, but apparently there is some controversy with it. I went searching for different opinions on the internet and will post some here. Take a look and let us know your opinion! I’ll be posting mine soon.
-Ann Kearney-Cooke, coauthor of ???Change Your Mind, Change Your Body??? (Atria). ???This is a really courageous move by Dove and I hope it???s going to pay off. There might be some strong reactions because they are going against years of this ultrathin image, but I think we have to hang in there.???
-Are the women in the company???s new ad campaign too big to sell beauty products, or have our minds gotten too small? (Subtitle for Newsweek article entitled Summer of Dove) click on http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8813128/site/newsweek/ for the full article.
-From Lucio Guerrero of the Chicago Sun-Times:
(article entitled Reserve billboards for the unattainable)
I see “real people” all the time. I don’t need “real people” to sell me things. I’m a “real person” and I don’t want to see me on the side of a bus — and trust me, in my underwear neither do you. (And speaking of underwear, what’s with the lingerie these women are wearing? It’s like Sears catalog, circa 1983.)
But what bothers me most about the ads is the hypocrisy. The folks at Dove want us to embrace our “real beauty” and love who we are no matter what we look like. If that’s the case, why are they selling firming cream?
Hopefully, Dove will come back to its senses and make my morning commute — and Phil’s and Kevin’s and that of countless other men — a little more pleasing to the eyes.
Ad campaigns tell women to celebrate who they are
By Theresa Howard, USA TODAY
[excerpts] Some health and beauty marketers are trying to send a message about body image that many parents have tried to teach their daughters for years: Be happy with who you are.
Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ sets a more realistic standard for attractiveness.
Unilever’s Dove brand and retailer Bath & Body Works, in a deal with American Girl, are ditching the traditional “aspirational” marketing messages that tell women and girls that if they buy a particular health or beauty product, they can look like the supermodel in the ad.
Instead of images of long locks, longer legs and incredibly lean bodies, the two companies are promoting their products with a message of “real beauty” by encouraging women and girls to celebrate themselves as they are ??? while using the products, of course.
It’s a marketing risk: The “real beauty” ads still need to sell women on the idea that they need these products to become even better.
“Any change in the culture of advertising that allows for a broader definition of beauty and encourages women to be more accepting and comfortable with their natural appearance is a step in the right direction,” says psychologist and author Mary Pipher. “But embedded within this is a contradiction. They are still saying you have to use this product to be beautiful.”
Pipher ??? whose seven books include Hunger Pains (about female body image) and Reviving Ophelia (about teen girls’ sense of self) adds, however: “It’s better than what we’ve had in the past.”
Unilever has led the way with a global ad effort and Web site (campaignforrealbeauty.com) for its Dove brand. It tries to reach ??? and reassure ??? women who might be self-conscious about their bodies.
Print and TV ads in the campaign that just went national in the USA feature candid and confident images of curvy, full-bodied, real women ??? not traditional models. The ads promote Dove skin products such as Intensive Firming Cream, Intensive Firming Lotion and Firming Body Wash. Containing blends of glycerin, seaweed extract and elastin peptides, they claim to have skin-firming properties and to reduce the appearance of cellulite.
“We wanted to debunk the stereotypical beauty stereotype that exists. We are recognizing that beauty comes in different sizes, shapes and ages,” says Philippe Harousseau, Dove marketing director. Dove recently surveyed 18-to-65-year-olds in 10 countries about perceptions of beauty, and the results “seemed to be incredibly and increasingly narrow,” he says.
Thanks Rach. Great Marketing Strategy in my mind. They are getting women to speak…nothing wrong with that. Those against it need to relax…and buy some product. =)
I had not seen this. I think it is great. I didn’t realize how swayed I was by the media. When I watched this ad and read about it I actually did feel better about my appearance thinking…now THAT I can strive for. Not sure if it will get me to buy their product, but definately like their approach.
I’m with you girls. I think the ad is great. Yeah, they are trying to sell a product, but in my mind, the advertising directors successfully combined selling a product and making a statement. I love the way it’s getting people to talk, and perhaps helping women feel better about their body image.
And why do people think this hypocrisy? Personally, if that ad would’ve been made with a too-skinny model, I would’ve thought to myself, “I will never look like that even if I poured gallons of that stuff on my body.” (negative body-image talk) But with this ad, I think, “Those chicks use that? Cool.” (positive body image talk) Can’t firming cream be seen as making what you have a little better? It’s better than thinking that one must use a product to look like someone else – the unobtainable.
I noticed in my Avon catalog that they are using plus size models now and even in the regular section, using models who are not skinny twigs to model clothes and lingerie. I like it! Especially with clothes as of course it never looks like the picture on me!
Now….will they ever go so far as to use models with cellulite…. 