Wired For Noise

Last year Dove put out their best marketing campaign ever, promoting “real beauty” and using women that were less than the ideal image we usually see. It was a hit, gaining applause from many women who were happy to finally see women their size on TV. Well, it seems that “real beauty” was just another marketing gimic. Via the f-word:

To avoid such complaints, retouchers tend to practice semi-clandestinely. “It is known that everybody does it, but they protest,” Dangin said recently. “The people who complain about retouching are the first to say, ‘Get this thing off my arm.’ ” I mentioned the Dove ad campaign that proudly featured lumpier-than-usual “real women” in their undergarments. It turned out that it was a Dangin job. “Do you know how much retouching was on that?” he asked. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”

I guess it’s better than nothing, I mean most women in commercials don’t show any mileage, lumps, or bumps at all. And with women carrying around everything from marketing pens to make up bags proclaiming “real beauty” the campaign seemed to at least raise some self confidence among women.

Well, white women at least. I wrote this last year in June about the Dove “real beauty” campaign.

I saw a post over at the Consumerist about Creepy Commercials For Skin Whitening Products, and yeah they really are creepy when you watch them from a typical American veiwpoint. One product, Fair & Lovely, has the creepiest commercials. You can see the commercial here at youtube, where a beautiful woman finds that she cannot get ahead in her job because her skin is too dark. Luckily there’s a face whitening cream for that, huh? What does Fair & Lovely say?

Since 1993 until today, we have been committed to transforming and inspiring the lives of women through beauty. We also believe in the economic empowerment of women to improve standards of living and contribute positively to the quality of life of all Malaysians.

Ummm…

Empowerment and improving the standards of living? By feeding into the cultural stigma of dark skinned women being “less than”? I’m sorry, where is the empowerment? And apparently many of these creams contain Mercury. Which is, you know, kind of dangerous. Like deadly dangerous.

Thank goodness we don’t have that here in America. Here we have companies like Dove campaining for Real Beauty. Wait a minute. What company owns Fair & Lovely? Unilever. And what company owns Dove? Unilever. What? Unilever owns both companies? Perhaps I am a little dense here, but how can the same company promote Dove’s “Real Beauty” message in America and at the same time promote dangerous creams to whiten a woman’s skin in parts of India? Can they have it both ways?

In a world of hype and stereotypes, Dove provides a refreshingly real alternative for women who recognise that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and isn’t simply about how you look - it’s about how you feel.

So which is it? Real beauty that isn’t about stereotypes, or rubbing mercury on your face to look whiter? Does beauty come in all shapes and sizes? Or does that only count if your skin is white enough?

Real beauty indeed.

Tags: Dove, Real Beauty, women