Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Really?
I was reading some advertising blogs over the weekend and read one really interesting article. If you look down a couple of posts you'll see that I love the new Dove Campaign for Real Beauty...turns out the company that distributes Dove, Unilever, is also the owner of Axe body spray, Slim Fast, Sunsilk and numerous other brands. As you may know the Axe advertising campaign promotes the idea that when men wear the said fragrance women will go crazy with the wild desire to have sex. Slim Fast on the other hand offers "easy" ways for people to lose weight. Some of Slim Fast's most popular items are drinks or snacks that are meant to be substitutes for meals...not exactly a healthy way to think about your diet or to get in shape. Sunsilk is almost the worst, as its ads feature only tall, skinny and beautiful models, who do ridiculous things to achieve the "perfect hair." The Sunsilk website even features a section where you can give yourself a "makeover" by changing your hair. As Dove is trying to position itself as a company that cares about the self-esteem of young girls and has made its goal to empower women, is it hypocritical of Unilever to promote these other brands that do just the opposite? Something to think about.
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4 comments:
I think that is sooo interesting...I also find it funny that the Dove "real beauty" stuff seems to be just as fake. Those women totally don't even really border on real. They maybe ten pounds overweight for Hollywood standards, but that is about it. Funny I say, funny.
Yes, it is sad, how the advertising agencies misrepresent reality in order to sell you stuff. The only real protection is to be media literate. Seems you've done your homework.
That is pretty interesting. Seems like they know they're markets pretty well, as obviously these campaigns are all very different from each other (except for the fact that they all revolve around the idea of personal appearance). My opinion is that an ad agency is hired to sell a product, and doesn't really have a responsibility to ensure that products don't conflict. Er, wait I just reread the blog and I was sort of talking about the wrong thing. But should Unilever not promote the idea of being comfortable with who you are at the same time as wear this body spray and you'll get laid by your friends mom? It's an interesting question. I'm not sure. Yes, I suppose it is hypocritical to promote healthy body image and slimfast at the same time, but can't people be skinny and clean at the same time? Unilever says yes. They also say to stop asking so many questions.
I hate the axe ads!
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