Dove's New Ad Campaign Grinds My Gears
So, as opinionated as I am about most things in life, I tend to bite my tongue with certain issues that circulate around the social media sites. At least once a day, I see something come across my newsfeed that has been shared millions of times by people who have done no research whatsoever on the topic. They just buy into the hype and effortlessly click the ‘share’ button, forcing the image/article/video to be moved along into a new sea of people who will repeat the process. I ignore most of these things because, frankly, I have better things to do than urge people to educate themselves through trusted resources. We have to double-check our facts when we write papers in junior high, high school, college, and grad school, so why do we consciously make such little effort to do the same outside of school? Last time I checked, Facebook and Twitter were not listed on my college professor’s list of trusted websites for resources. So like I said already, I bite my tongue when I see stupid shit surface my social portals. With that being said, I’m going to harp on a topic of interest for a second. Yes, it’s my turn.
I’ve seen many Dove advertisements over the past decade, all pertaining to self-esteem topics like ‘curvy women are beautiful’, ‘dark-skinned women are beautiful’, and the most recent atrocity, ‘women don’t see themselves the way others see them’. This is a ploy for one of the biggest soap companies, owned by a larger company called Unilever, to take money from your pockets. And guess what, it’s working. Now before I continue, I need to mention that I’m not against Dove or Dove products by any means. I’m not a former disgruntled employee, I’ve never been wronged by Dove or anyone associated with Dove, I’m just a college graduate with a substantial education.
In the most recent scheme to get your money, Dove did a study on how women perceive themselves versus how others see them. This is a nice thought in theory. We are shown that women describe themselves in ways to make them seem less appealing. They focus on their problem parts: big chin, high forehead, large nose, etc. They describe themselves while a forensic artist (who cannot see them) draws an ‘honest’ description of their worded detail. Then the same forensic artist draws another picture of the same woman, only this time, a different person is describing the subject the way they see them. In the second drawing, the woman appears more beautiful, happier, more vibrant, livelier. Brilliant, right? So now we witness these subjects, actors chosen by Dove, view their self-images and cry as they compare the two. Touching. This is an advertisement! Obviously, the artist is going to draw you different the second time. Obviously, another person is going to describe you differently. This is not ground-breaking stuff here. Don’t be fooled. So now, as a viewer, I’m supposed to get emotional and look within myself for my inner beauty, hopefully finding it. I thank Dove for guiding me to my own beauty by buying their face wash, body lotion and shower soap. I pass the touching short film along to my facebook friends so they can achieve inner beauty too, because they’re most likely suffering from low self-esteem as well. Thank God for Dove.
What’s this new obsession with outer beauty/inner beauty bullshit anyways? Why do I need a soap company to tell me that I’m beautiful? If I can’t trust myself with the belief that I’m beautiful then why would I trust some giant corporation to tell me so? Why is the media constantly convincing us that WE ARE BEAUTIFUL, like we have been living in denial all our lives? I know I’m fucking beautiful, I own it! My mother raised me to believe that I am beautiful, not only for what’s on the outside, but for the way I treat people, my generosity, my faith in humankind, my relentless obsession with putting others first, my intelligence. All of these things make me beautiful as a whole. But so what? So, I’m beautiful… supposedly… why does that matter? I don’t get by in life solely because I’m fucking gorgeous. My life wouldn’t end if someone slapped me in the face and said, ‘You’re ugly, fix that shit’. I’m built with confidence, I don’t buy into others’ opinions, and neither should you. Why has the media forced me to believe that this is the only thing that matters?! Beauty. Everyone must be beautiful… EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL IN THEIR OWN SPECIAL WAY. We already know this, we’ve been taught this. We get the message. There are other things in life that hold so much more value than beauty. Friendship, love, family, world peace, I can go on and on here. Instead of spending millions of dollars on campaigns that confuse women about the important things in life, why doesn’t Dove go spend some time in Haiti and document their progress on supplying cleaner water and show THAT video to Americans? Or how about they take that money and start researching more effective ways to test their products without using innocent animals? Now THAT would get my support. Show me a video on that!
I spend my days being a good person. I work hard, I make an honest living at my dream job. I’ve worked hard to get here and I am thankful for this every single day. I come home to my dog every night and make sure he gets fed and loved. I call my mom every night to make sure she’s doing alright, I ask her if she needs anything. I sit down with my roommate and go over notes on the film we wrote. We discuss budget plans, locations, shoot dates. We pop open a beer and divulge in gossip, we make fun of each other. We are real people with strong goals, we are motivated to succeed in life because we have a drive to do so. We strive to be happy, and with happiness comes success. Success brings us a sense of empowerment, and this empowerment will help us conquer the world. Not our beauty. Our beauty is just a tiny spec of a picture so much greater.
So please stop telling me that I’m beautiful. I know. We should all know that we are beautiful. We do not need a corporation to convince us of this. And even more importantly, we should have a stronger sense of direction when choosing a soap or a face wash. Sniff them, test them on your skin to make sure you’re not allergic, find out which ones don’t test on animals (if you’re passionate about that like I am), then choose. If Dove still tickles your fancy, then by all means, buy it. Just don’t let their misleading advertisements be your deciding factor.
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