Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Soap and Self-Esteem

OK, ladies, who here hasn't flipped through a magazine and thought, I wish I looked like her. If I just bought a new outfit, got a haircut, lost weight, bought new makeup, exercised more, etc., I would look like her. As part of their "Campaign for Real Beauty," Dove Soap has produced a pretty amazing one-minute movie that shows the "Evolution" of an "everywoman" into a supermodel. Wow, they get a lot of help.

Dove has also created the Dove Self-Esteem Fund which funds the uniquely ME! program for Girl Scouts in the United States, the BodyTalk program in the UK, and the Beyond Compare photo exhibition in Canada and the Netherlands.

Do I know that they are doing this to sell Dove soap, yes. Am I happy that some girl's or woman's self-esteem might be positively affected while they are selling soap, sure, why not?

Hat tip to the GOOD magazine blog for the story.

Photo credit: Screenshot from the Dove site.







2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:23 AM

    It never ceases to amaze me that a positive campaign like this can be subsequently slammed by the media mavens at Adrants & AdFreak. Check the industry's response: http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2006/10/two_new_spots_f.html

    I blogged about the global implications of instilling fabricated standards (freakish-futurism) under the guise of 'aspirational advertising' on our blog at http://www.ShapingYouth.org
    along with the socioemotional toll it's taking on young girls and teens particularly. (research on this is scary!)

    Alas, as usual, my ad colleagues belittle it as 'over-reaction' with choice expletives and walloping doses of sarcasm...not an erudite one in the lot.

    Accountability? No way...my industry (adv/mktg) continues to duck-n-cover, resisting ANY modicum of responsibility for what we're doing to young kids on the planet, much less grown women. Bloody sad.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for being an advocate for young people in this consumer crazy culture.

    ReplyDelete

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