Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign: Useful or Sinister?

Jon Hanson over at The Situationist blog (which is associated with The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School) has an interesting and - I think - dead on analysis of Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign, and its "Onslaught" ad in particularly.  If you haven't seen the "Onslaught" ad, you should definitely check it out:

Not being a parent, my reaction to this ad was "Dude, that is EVERYONE, not just little kids."  I mean I agree, malleable minds and so forth.  But aren't we all getting onslaughted*, every minute of every day?  Are we somehow toughened against it, hardened in the military sense, like a bunker against an RPG strike?  I'm not sure we are.  But perhaps it's too late for us grown up old people - children, save yourselves!

I'm only half kidding, by the way.  

The message at the end of "Onslaught" is "Talk to your kids before the beauty industry does."  "If the industry is the problem, it strikes me as odd that the parents are supposed to be the solution," Hanson says. Hanson then takes a little side trip into the world of cigarette pandering advertising, and its history of shifting the blame for childhood smoking to parents.  

When Philip Morris says "Parents should talk to their kids about smoking," Philip Morris is saying "Parents are responsible for whether or not their children smoke."  Interesting that what gets left out of that message is "nicotine is an addictive substance which is available over the counter in the United States, and readily available from many public sources, and also is marketed using cartoon characters."  Hanson feels that the same forces are behind the "Onslaught" video, although he acknowledges that it's a lot less pernicious to sell soap to kids than cigarettes.

Dove is owned by Unilever, and while we certainly cannot call each branch of Unilever into account for the actions of the others, I think it's reasonable to mention here that Axe Body Spray is also a Unilever product.  Axe, producer of some of the most misogynist commercials since the 1950s, and (incidentally) things which smell very bad.  Axe commercials manage to prey on the insecurities of both men and women in one go, which is pretty impressive.

Unilever is also involved in a lot of very hate-able "skin lightening cream" ad campaigns internationally, particularly in India and Asia.  These ads use forceful, "take action" language which both empower the viewer and encourage them to lighten their skin.  As clever as they are evil!

The post's title suggests a solution to this complicated situation.  Instead of slinking off and telling other people what to do, Dove needs to get tough and talk to its own parent (company).  Put up or shut up, is the bottom line here.  Maybe if Dove feels that strongly about the "real beauty" issue, it needs to split off from its parent company and stand on its own feet.

Or maybe it's all just a cynical ad campaign, designed to part the consumer from as much money as possible.  I'll let you be the judge.

*    I have a degree in English, which licenses me to mint my own words as needed.  Don't try this at home!