Dove

Poor Dove.  They just try so hard to sell beauty products by convincing women they are beautiful!

On the surface, their advertising is feel-good.  Tear-worthy even.  I've been there.  I cried at the portrait-drawing commercial and felt a wave of self-confidence, true true.  

And then I thought about it some more.  And read about it some more.  I realized how demoralizing these ads are when we think about it.  Here, a company trying to sell us products to look a certain way - to have certain hair, skin - is trying to manipulate us into thinking we are beautiful.  Reverse marketing - tell the people you are trying to sell stuff to that they are awesome, tell them about your awesome products, make them feel awesome about you so you go buy their stuff.  In the end, Dove and other like marketers make a ton of money off your insecurities which they inflate into feel-good sentiments about your beauty and worth.  People have caught on and are tired of being told they suck so when companies tell them they are awesome, of course they are more attracted to those companies.

I realize my pessimism is high on this one, and I can't blame a company that makes millions of dollars for wanting to keep up that business model.  I guess that's smart.

Let's take a look at the new campaign with the Dove Doors.  Women all over the world walk up to a building (Mall?  Office? ) and are presented with two entrances.  One banner over the door reads "Beautiful" and the other reads "Average".  As expected, most women choose the Average Door.  One woman in particular didn't choose any of them - she turned and walked away.  They are then interviewed after how they thought about it and the commercial ends with more women walking through the Beautiful Door and feeling better about themselves.

View it here for yourself.

Here's my analysis on this and why I'm not getting The Feels with this one:


1.  Why are there only two choices?  In Dove's eyes, your only beautiful or maybe not so beautiful.  What if they had put an "ugly" door up?  What if they put up one that said "I don't care" or "I feel beautiful...today"  Because let's face it.  We have almost all felt ugly *and* beautiful in our lives, even those with the most horrible body image.  When we wear something we feel good in and go on a fun date, we probably feel beautiful, even when we don't always think that.  And guess what - that's life.  Some days are better than others.  We're not always all beautiful, and we're not always all average or any of these things.  Life is not one or the other. 

2.  Why are you forcing women to choose one or the other - and then making them feel bad about it?  Where is the door with nothing on it because, for goodness sake, these women walking up to the door really only wanted to go in whatever building they were going in.  Why must they be confronted with this major issue (which could be super triggering to those with body dysmorphia, eating disorders - maybe why that one woman walked away!) when all they maybe intended to do was go get a latte at Starbucks?  Whether Dove knows it or not, women (unfortunately) probably think of these two juxtapositions every day. When they get ready in the morning, they think "does this look good on me?  Does my hair look ok?  Do all these things make me feel beautiful "enough" to at least walk out the door and get my day going?  But Dove wanted to experiment with what women felt when literally confronted by it in public.  Those who chose the average door were then asked why and by way of the post-door interview, making them feel bad about not feeling beautiful.  In other words, Dove's message is "Why don't you feel beautiful?  You are!"  It's like saying to someone "why don't you love that pair of shoes?  I do - they are great!"  Again, what's bad about thinking you're average?  Why is average even bad in the first place? 

3.  Where's the "I'm awesome!" door, or "I had a great day at work because I got so much done!" door.  In other words, why are these only about beauty?  Sure, I want to feel beautiful - we are all hard wired to want to be seen as good lookin' to attract mates.  It's biology and as much as we don't want superficial things like beauty to matter, to a certain extent they do and I think we need to acknowledge this on the level it needs to be at.  When I am wearing something I feel I look good in, yes, my mood is elevated, as would yours.  Nothing wrong with that.  What is wrong about the Dove message is that beauty are the only doors to choose - beauty is the single thing women must think positively about themselves.  It doesn't matter if you helped a friend out the other day, donating your time volunteering for less fortunate people or solved an issue at your work or school. Are you beautiful?  Do you think so?  Ok, you can be a full woman now, no matter whatever else you might do in your lives.  This message of women and beauty being intricately linked is as old as the hills. 

4.  These choices are easier to come by if you have a certain privilege.  Look, I'm all about the P word and what it means, but I'm also tiring of seeing it everywhere.  But that only means that it's true (and I have Tiring-type privilege).  Think about this - and this is hard to swallow.  It is easier to go through the beautiful door if you are what most would consider conventionally attractive, in other words thin or average sizes, in nice clothing that one is able to afford and probably white.  It's easier for certain types of people in this world to accept their beauty when they are also accepted by society as a whole.  So when we tell women they are wrong about not thinking they are beautiful, and they are a woman of color, size, economic status, we have to realize it's harder for many of those folks.  If a woman for whatever reason does not think she is beautiful, it is not her fault for thinking so.  

5.  The obvious omission of men in this ad sucks too.  Men have just as many insecurities about their bodies - should we do a male-angled experiment with "Muscular" v. "Scrawny"  or whatever?  (Hint: NO).  Again - the message is only women are to be concerned about their looks and beauty.  Beauty is IMPORTANT and don't you be denyin' it. 

The entire point of my attack on the ad here is that our advertising and marketing - while it seems to make us want to lift our spirits and make us feel good about ourselves - is still deceiving as what marketing is at its core.  Be mindful and question the advertising you see - why does something make you feel good?  Or bad?  What are they really trying to sell?  How do you feel about you overall as a person and how does that get you through your day?