Dove: beautiful/average
Here’s the latest Dove film that supposedly attempts to make women feel good about being what society has made them believe is ‘average’. Or something:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DdM-4siaQw
This is actually a very complicated issue that is being dumbed down through oversimplification (here’s a Guardian article on the ad and one from Buzzfeed that was removed under controversial circumstances that make Unilever (and Buzzfeed) look a bit cunty). A giant conglomerate (Unilever who, as I have mentioned many times, makes Lynx/Axe, the product whose advertising has objectified women more than any other) attempts to advertise one of its brands by marking two doors either ‘Average’ or ‘Beautiful’. That way we can see how women feel about themselves and make some kind of statement that society has been bad or wrong for making women feel as if they are average instead of beautiful. Apparently, according to a survey commissioned in an entirely unbiased manner by Dove, 96% of women regard themselves as average
There’s a behind the scenes film, but it’s more concerned with showing how difficult it is for the (mostly male) team behind the ad to travel to lots of different countries in a short space of time. So I am left with some questions…
What do the doors lead to? A shop? A museum? A lap dancing club? Why are women going through them at all? This is important because if I saw two doors marked ‘Average’ and ‘Beautiful’ on the front of, say, a department store I wouldn’t even think I was supposed to be making a choice about how I supposedly feel about myself. I don’t believe all the ‘Averages’ really thought they were downtrodden, depressed women with low self esteem who demonstrated this feeling by their choice of door.
In addition, there are plenty of women in this film who are objectively beautiful (including the very first one and one who appears to be a model at 3:17). Where were the 25-stone ladies, or the old age pensioners? Would they have messed the film up a bit by being clearly ‘average’ (or below average)?
Why ‘Beautiful’ vs ‘Average’? By definition most people are average: average intelligence, average height, average beauty. That’s what average means: the typical value in a set of data. It’s a long time since I did statistics as part of my degree, but depending how you want to impose parameters, a full 50% of people might well fit into any definition of average, with 25% of outliers, in this case ‘ugly’ and ‘beautiful’, at either end. It seems to me that many of the women making the average choice did indeed fit into the definition of average in terms of their physical appearance. And here’s the important thing about that: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Unless we’re going for the Disney definition of beautiful in which we say that ‘we’re all beautiful inside’ etc. (which really has nothing to do with Dove, which exists purely to enhance your outward appearance) then there are people who are more or less beautiful as far as a generally agreed definition of certain traits of physicality (eg: long, shiny hair instead vs bald, or smooth, clear skin vs covered in varicose veins). Dove ain’t saying that bald women with varicose veins are ‘beautiful’, so what are they saying? That women should definitely evaluate themselves on the basis of physical appearance, but they should be more positive about it. Is that a good thing for the objectification of women in general? I would argue not.
So I have some doubts about the mechanics of the experiment, and I have other questions about whether or not it really empowers women or makes them relate to themselves in a more positive way.
What I have no questions about is this: many giant companies will fling out any old bollocks to cynically manipulate people into parting with their money. The less we fall for it, the better.
I’m getting really bored of seeing Dove ads portraying women as pathetic, down trodden victims. If Dove wants to help women, they should stop chasing awards with the whole “being a woman is rubbish” bullshit. Talk to me about what women can do apart from being just ugly or beautiful. I think FCB’s ‘This Girl Can’ was a lot more sincere, and a lot more empowering.
What a load of shite (and the BTS film is even worse so please don’t waste your time). Let’s get a room full of “average” women to watch a bunch of Lynx commercials and then see if they feel Beautiful or Average. Well done Ben for writing about this and I agree 100% with you. I seriously doubt that 99% of the people who walked through those doors even noticed or cared what it said above them. Time for Dove to move on!!!!!
As much as I hate this attempt by Dove to yet again manipulate the female populace, will this increase sales?
If the answer to that is yes, then it’s a job well done. No matter how much the smart, empowered women (and men) condemn it.
What we would need for Dove to stop this kind of advertising is a decline in sales after they air these videos. That will only happen if the smart and empowered women actively campaign against Dove and its manipulative advertising, and let’s face it, they’ve got something better to do than to get riled up about Unilever and some shitty ad for soap.
How are women who think they’re below average supposed to get into the building?
It’s complete shite. This film really wound me up.
However I’m sure the agency that made it will make a turd case study video, with some rather suspicious facts. It will then win a bunch of awards.
The reality is that people are a lot smarter than the client/agency seem to be giving them credit for.
People see straight through this shit as the insincere bollocks that it is.
The only people falling for it are other ad and marketing people, awards juries and industry press, who all probably like it because it makes them feel like their own job is more meaningful than flogging soap (truth:it isn’t).
In the long run, companies like Dove would do better to credit their customer with more intelligence, and use their advertising to show people why their products are more worthy of their money than other products, rather than this wafer-thin, disingenuous stuff.
It’s not the role of brands to tell us what to think or how we should feel. Get your products right and tell us why they’re worth our hard-earned money, then fuck-off until we need you next time.
Isn’t Dove just soap? I have been using soap for years and it hasn’t turned me into an object of desire. Not sure I see the connection between cleaning your skin and being hot. Or not.
They needed to hitch their wagon to something and they chose to “own” real beauty. or something like that. ironically, the executions are getting old. and wrinkly.
If coke can sell happiness why cant Dove argue beauty…? By the way i posted before on this but never appeared. Not sure if it was cos my post was shit or was it moderated. Just wondering would the world be better off without the original Dove photoshop ad or with it?
Hi It Floats: I haven’t seen your original comment, so I haven’t moderated it and I never remove comments for being shit; just if they’re personally rude about someone or professionally compromising for me.
Dove can argue beauty. I think the difference between them and Coke is that Coke doesn’t REALLY suggest its products are anything to do with proper happiness. It tacks itself onto that emotion in such a light and bullshitty manner that it’s clearly not making any kind of a Dove-esque statement about global happiness.
Dove puts up this stupid bollocks under the guise of a real experiment that has some valid meaning for people to take away, and to me that’s problematic.
(No worries, think my comment must not of uploaded. Here’s what i was getting at…) The video was pretty gripping though if cringey. Yes a lot of grey areas as to its total effect but I think it probably does more good than bad. And while Dove is an external product you could argue any product is also about how it makes you feel. But yeah if the next ad pre rolled to Lynx you’d have to go ‘wait a minute…’ Then again, are we all going to stop appreciating good football because of questionable fund resources of big brand clubs. At least theyre appearing to care even if that is to sell soap. That should be applauded. Very few people do anything in the world that isnt to help sell something indirectly. But yeah youre right, Dove shouldnt hold themselves out as psychologists curing the wolrd, this one went too far. (Great critique thanks)