Rage Against the Man-chine

8 Comments

• 
  Rebecca
  April 22, 2008 at 11:34 pm

  I appreciate the wit of your site–thanks for the encouragement, sister.

  A note on the Dove/Axe parent company thing:

  It’s not necessarily hypocrisy.
  The truth is,
  their parent company, Unilever, is enormous, and both Dove and Axe are very small divisions of this.
  They are run by completely different management teams, and their ads are approved by completely different producers/directors/creatives.

  In other words,
  Axe and Dove have nothing to do with each other–
  they are separate companies, whose stock is owned by one large company.

  Would it be better if Unilever paid more attention to their products?
  Made sure that these ad messages weren’t in such conflict?
  Of course–Axe’s ads are horrifically sexist, while Dove’s are poignantly truthful.

  I’m just saying–from an insider’s perspective (I work in a post-production house for commercials), it’s not really surprising or hypocritical for such disparate ads to come out of a parent company.

  Sincerely,

  Rebecca

• 
  b
  April 23, 2008 at 9:31 am

  in the UK Dove started advertising mostiristing deorent, http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/06/doves_sleeveless_ready_campaig.html

  In the advert they seriously *try* to make people insecure about their armpits…ffs

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/columnists/story/0,,2249916,00.html

• 
  Drakkar Noir
  April 23, 2008 at 4:27 pm

  If parents have to get pointers from a Dove commercial their child is fucked already.

• 
  Nine Deuce
  April 23, 2008 at 6:33 pm

  Drakkar - I suppose so, but I think I like that the ad brings attention to how pervasive and influential the beauty industry is.

• 
  Ate
  April 26, 2008 at 1:16 pm

  Unilever also own the ‘Fair & Lovely’ brand. You know, the whitening cream promoted heavily in India.

  This ad says it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-9tcXpW1DE

• 
  Ate
  April 26, 2008 at 1:19 pm

  Unilever also own the ‘Fair & Lovely’ brand. You know, the whitening cream promoted heavily in India, that takes full advantage of cultural race bias. You can be beautiful and achieve everything you’ve ever wanted! If you’re white!

  This ad says it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-9tcXpW1DE

• 
  Rachael
  October 18, 2008 at 3:03 am

  The video’s been removed, but I was able to find a duplicate by searching for “campaign for real beauty.”

  Even though Dove is far from perfect, I loved their “real beauty” campaign. And this was a great reminder of the ideas girls are hit with at such a young age. Thank you for posting it.

• 
  isme
  October 18, 2008 at 1:34 pm

  Though, the “campaign for real beauty” is just another gimmick to sell more stuff. The fact that what they are saying has truth in it is almost a coincidence.

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