There’s this ad for Dove going around the internet at the
moment. It’s very well put together and judging by the number of people having
a positive reaction to it and sharing it around it must be a great success for
the Dove marketing division. It’s also cynical marketing shenanigans. Here’s
the ad in question if you haven’t already seen it:
Made you feel good, right? Well if there’s one thing you
should ever learn from this blog it’s that you should never feel good ever. Now,
there is a positive message to be found in the video. We often judge ourselves harder
than any other person could and have a skewed perception when it comes to our appearance.
When it comes to looks, women in particular shouldn’t be so hard on themselves
and it’s good to know that strangers are able to look past the flaws which
might be so glaring to one person. A reminder to appreciate the beauty in
oneself is a good lesson for young women.
HOWEVER!
It’s still saying that the most important thing to judge a
woman on is their physical appearance, that beauty trumps everything else. The
ad gives the impression that it is challenging the way we look at beauty, but
what it is actually saying to the women in the ad is, ‘don’t worry ladies! You’re
closer to the conventional standard of beauty that you first thought!’ It doesn’t
re-evaluate what beauty is or just how important beauty should be in comparison
to other qualities. You may be as dumb as a pile of rocks that dropped out of
rock school, lazy, dishonest, a war criminal-but fuck it, you’re a little
prettier than you thought you were, so hurray, I guess. I mean, the concept of
the ad is that they bring in strangers to talk to these women for long enough
that they get an impression of that person, but the strangers are still only
asked about what the women looked like. What was the point in having a
conversation then? Couldn’t they just have looked at a photograph?
I mean, I’m not even getting this from the subtext of the
Dove video, it is right there in the script! The last thing said in the video,
the lesson we’re supposed to take away from this feel-good exercise is: “I
should be more grateful of my natural beauty. It impacts the choices and
the friends we make, the jobs we go out for, the way we treat our children, it
impacts everything. It couldn’t be more critical to your happiness.” Doesn’t that kind of undercut the whole point that
they’re trying to make? Beauty…could not be more critical to your happiness. They’re
not giving any thought to the idea that there is much more to a person than how
beautiful they are. It’s the status quo cunningly disguised as a touching and
subversive sentiment. Is it true that beauty impacts the friends we make and
the jobs we get? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean that it should. Looks are not everything. As for
beauty impacting the way we treat our children; that would make you a pretty
shitty parent.
 |
| Beauty: It impacts the way this dude treats his children |
Finally, come on now, it’s an ad. If people
are learning something positive from it, that’s great but it isn’t why it was
made. The whole point is to make you more aware of the Dove brand and more
likely to buy Dove products. They’re not really bothered about ‘real beauty’
and making women feel better about their image. For crying out loud, the same
company that owns the Dove brand (Unilever) also owns Lynx, whose whole
marketing strategy is based on the objectification of women. If you take
anything away from this blog (apart from the fact that you should never feel
good, ever) it’s that you should always treat a message with scepticism if
there’s a blatant ulterior motive behind, whether it’s coming from a
politician, a newspaper or lady soap. An advertisement is never going to tell
you something that you don’t want to hear. Finding a profound message in a Dove
advertisement is like believing a prostitute who says that they love you. All they
really care about is the cream.
...dolla dolla bill, y'all.
