Unilever Gets Caught

Seen the new Dove film yet?  It's getting pretty viral, at least in my life as at least three people have sent it to me in the past week or so.  If not, view Onslaught, the new Dove film that is the second film installment in their Campaign for Real Beauty.  The first was the incredibly successful Evolution.  As a mother of a daughter, it's hard not for me to be moved by the work Dove is doing.  As a woman who is facing wrinkles and gray hairs, their recent Pro-Age campaign spoke to me as well.  Plus, their work pushes all of the right feminist, media critic, advertising scholar buttons in me.  But ... someone is finally talking about the inevitable, and Dove, or at least its parent company Unilever is in a bit of a controversy.

The same week the Onslaught video hit the net, so did the news of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood's statement about the hypocrisy of the Dove efforts.  You see, Dove is owned by Unilever, and Unilever also owns the AXE brand.  Surely, you're familiar with AXE, the uber-man brand that's entire brand image had been built on the objectification of women (and the dumbing down of men).  Check out their recent Bom Chicka Wah Wah campaign microsite.  So at the same time that Unilever is advocating a more realistic portrayal of female beauty via Dove, they are reinforcing every gender stereotype on Earth via AXE.  Yep, hypocrisy is the right word, alright.

The CCFC issued a statment that read, in part, "The Axe campaign makes clear that any concerns Unilever has about girls’ wellbeing take a backseat to their desire to exploit stereotypes for profit.  With Axe, Unilever is creating the same toxic environment addressed by its Dove Campaign.  We hope that the creators of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, and everyone else who cares about the wellbeing of girls, will join us in urging Unilever to end its Axe marketing." 

Ouch!

Unilever responded with, "Unilever is a large, global company with many brands in its portfolio. Each brand's efforts are tailored to reflect the unique interests and needs of its audience. The Dove brand is dedicated to making more women feel beautiful everyday by widening today's stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves. As part of this commitment, the brand created the Dove Self-Esteem Fund to educate and inspire girls on a wider definition of beauty. The Axe campaign is a spoof, of 'the mating game' and men's desire to get noticed by women and not meant to be taken literally."

Wow!

And so the war of the press releases is on.  We'll see who caves first.

More important though is the discovery about corporate ownership and the pandering to consumer audiences.  Clearly Unilever isn't in this to make girls feel better about themselves.  Or at least they aren't in it whole-heartedly.  They're in this to sell shampoo and lotion and antiperspirant.  They're in it to get us to buy stuff so they make money.  That's the reality.  This is branding, and whether we're chucking AXE in our shopping cart or Dove, we're buying it!