Comments on: Teaching Feminism and Body Image: What is Dove Really Selling?

By: Tamie Perilli

Tamie Perilli — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:08:55 +0000

I am intending nowadays to get one effective anti wrinkle cream yet it appears right now there is nothing at all that can potentially treat my skin. If perhaps somebody surely discover some treatment that can make magic just tell me and therefore For certain I will admire this.

By: On Body Image: Men and Advertising | Small Strokes

On Body Image: Men and Advertising | Small Strokes — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:31:15 +0000

[...] as much as I have learned about Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, and as much as I now understand that their motives are not all together pure, I do also understand [...]

By: Autumn

Autumn — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:01:50 +0000

I used to think the whole Dove thing was brilliant- until I learned they have the same parent company as those Axe men’s products (with those crazy commercials) and wore, they were selling skin-lightening creams to women in southeast Asia and India, with horrible commercials to boot. I haven’t got a link, but the gist of the ad was the lighter girl gets the hot rich guy, while the darker girl is sad and alone until she uses this magical skin-lightening cream!

I will never buy anything from Dove or Axe again, and Unilever is NOT womyn-friendly.

By: Weekend Link Love « The Feminist Texican

Weekend Link Love « The Feminist Texican — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:15:10 +0000

[...] Small Strokes: Teaching Feminism: What Are Commercials Really Selling? [...]

By: Nikki

Nikki — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:52:27 +0000

let’s remember that the same marketing company that came up with the campaign for real beauty also does axe commercials.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:53:31 +0000

P.S. If Dove wanted to really be convincing, it wouldn’t show the made up image, but maybe what the workshops were really all about. It’s only soap.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:52:28 +0000

While all advertising images of people are fake, what I find particularly unsettling is seeing so many women all made up to begin with. It’s very strange to go to a formal business event, and observe the glamorous made up faces of women, and then their dumpy husbands. What is this about really?

By: Allie

Allie — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:59:26 +0000

At the end of it all, I can never forgive them for running the Campaign for Real Beauty as a means of selling firming cream. I’m not surprised by it, yet I’m shocked by their nerve to be so ironic. Lauredhel says it perfectly: they’ve co-opted feminist speak and fixed it up so it won’t be threatening to their push to make money off of female insecurity. They’re talking out of both sides of their mouth, and it (like most media directed at women) reminds me of the really mean high school girl who pretends to be your friend to keep you off balance and trusting, offering to help you but really taking advantage of you.

By: lauredhel

lauredhel — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:30:03 +0000

Unilever, “working hard to make a social change”? Unilever, who push skin whitening creams with racist advertisements, who sell Axe/Lynx with gobsmacking misogyny and objectification, who hawk Slim-Fast, who say Bom Chicka Wow Wow and Can’t You Feminists Take a Joke? and I Wish Girls Were More Like Pot Noodle?

Which social change are they working for?

They make money. That’s it. They’ve co-opted (and slimmed, and smoothed, and prettified, and diluted) feminist-speak in order to sell product to a particular target market. Faith in corporate goodwill is perhaps understandable, but misplaced.

And I’m really glad these students are seeing through it.

By: Melissa Wardy

Melissa Wardy — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:05:45 +0000

This is a great post, and I am so happy to hear you shared the Dove ad with your students. It is so important to teach Media Literacy to our kids, and get them thinking about, not just absorbing, advertising. I have mixed feelings about the Dove Real Beauty campaign, but for the most part I find it favorable towards women, views on beauty, and self-esteem. I believe they are trying to create a “culture of positive self-image” when it comes to beauty. And facial soap. I think they are doing good work for young girls, which is where my passion lies.

I would argue that a for-profit company can have altruistic intentions and simultaneously sell a product. I have a t-shirt company for girls with the motto to “Redefine Girly” and change the way our culture looks at girls. My company’s main goal is to end hypersexualization of clothes and toys for girls. So yes, I sell my shirts for a profit, but like Dove, am working hard to make a social change.

What a great lesson for your students!