I was at a marketing conference the other day and was priveleged enough to hear Jeffrey Allgrove, the President of Unilever, speak. As many of you might already know, Unilver produces Dove skin care products and you are likely aware that in the last few years Dove has launched their Real Beauty campaign. I know I have discussed this campaign on urbanmoms.ca before but I had to do it again. I love this campaign!
Some consumers and marketers claim the campaign is a manipulation. That Unilever is a powerhouse who is simply using this power and women’s desire for more realistic role models to sell more "stuff". Well, my response is…duh!? Isn’t all advertising a form of manipulation? Advertisers spend millions to find an insight or our emotional achilles heel to make their message relatable – I "get" you so you should buy my brand. The reason they do this is because it works. And, if it is true and a brand does understand you and does share your values then, don’t you want to buy that product?
That’s what it is with Dove. I didn’t really pay too much attention to any skin care brand before. They all seemed pretty much the same. But the Real Beauty campaign struck a chord and I was very interested to hear what the president had to say. Here are a few of the things that really resonated with me:
- 40% of 9 year old girls are dieting or have dieted.
- 3/4 of girls avoid some activity due to their appearance.
- Only 2% of women identify themselves as beautiful.
Whoa. These, and there are plenty more, actually made me feel a bit sick. Then Mr. Allgrove started speaking to the question of "selling stuff". I loved his response. He said yes, we are a business, of course we are selling stuff. However, we would not be in business for very long if we didn’t reflect the values of the society in which we live and we will continue to be leaders if we take risks and challenge the status quo.
What advertisers are forgetting is that this was a HUGE risk for Dove. Putting regular people in beauty ads? I remember reading some of the critiques when the campaign first launched. I won’t even repeat some of the words used to describe the women in the ads. However, Dove gets the last laugh. More than a year after the campaign launched in Canada it is still the only campaign women identified as one they love in recent urbanmoms.ca research. It is also held as the gold standard when marketers are talking about campaigns for women.
In case you haven’t seen it in a while, click here for my favourite TV spot. As my 3 year old daughter compalins about her short hair because all of the other girls have long hair (click here and go to the bottom of the page to My Beautiful Bald Little Girl for the whole story), I cry while watching this ad and worry, already, about the huge pressure to be "beautiful" on all of our wonderful and unique little girls.
Jen
I too love this campaign and thank you for raising these points again. I also agree with your comments about the supposed manipulation behind their campaign. I don’t think in this day any of us could claim ignorance to the motivation behind a marketing campaign and of course, Dove is trying to sell a product. But I have to buy deodorant and I would much rather that profit go to a company that is trying something new and creative with their marketing. And a company that I believe is having an impact. I have heard so many women from all aspects of my life discuss how much they like this campaign and how it has raised conversations with both their female friends and their male friends/husbands about body images and trying to change it. I was shocked that only 2% of us consider ourselves beautiful and applaud Dove for speaking to this issue. It sure beats watching women in bikinis!