Dove Launches Truely Meaningful Campaign

We all know sex sells. But what about beauty? I’m talking true inner beauty! The kind that you can’t get at the salon or by a “breast enhancement.” Well, maybe a soap company finally got it right.

Dove, the soap maker, has hit the nail straight on the head with its new ad campaign entitled “Onslaught.” The title represents the onslaught of commercials that kids see these days that mess with their thoughts as to how they are viewed in the world.

The one-minute commercial highlights all of the Barbie-doll images that little girls see in the media. Once they see how all these women are in the media, they feel an overwhelming amount of pressure to be like all the beauty queens, missing the bigger picture of true, inner beauty.

If Dove wanted one way to say that their soap brings out the inner beauty, this is it. The commercial doesn’t say that anywhere, but it is evident that Dove wants you to think that.

The entire program that Dove is launching with this commercial is not only great for their image, but also for the message that it sends.

After showing all the beauty queens in their underwear ads and sexy music videos, the commercial takes a dark twist. It shows the battle that some women have with weightless and the horrors of plastic surgery. The commercial cleverly links the results of the beauty advertising as personal image issues and plastic surgery. Sadly, the commercial hits the issue straight on.

One thing that companies really want to do these days is to come off as genuine and Dove does this. Because Dove is in the so-called beauty industry, it is much more important that it launches this campaign rather than a local grass-root organization striving to convey the same message.

The quote at the end of the commercial reads “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.” This is a clear message to parents that even though the beauty industry is throwing on all the pressure to look like Barbie, it then becomes their responsibility to inform their children, in particularly girls, that beauty is both inside and out.

Ad Age critic Bob Garfield says that that ad “indicts culture’s obsession with Barbie-doll exteriors, raises the consciousness of girls and women and exposes the inner ugliness of the so-called beauty industry. For more information and the commercial and what Dove is doing to practice what they preach, visit: Campaignforrealbeauty.com

Also related to this commercial, on May 15, Whitney became the newest winner of Tyra Banks’ America’s Top Model. Why is this relevant? She is considered a plus-size model in the world of fashion. Maybe it is time shows such as this, and commercials such as “Onslaught” begin to break down the shallow world of beauty and fashion.

To view the commercial and to read what Ad Age has to say about, visit adage/garfield/post?article_id=120975