Dove: challenging prevailling concepts of beauty

Thèmes abordés

Communication, promotion, brand image, dove, unilever, advertising, ethics

Résumé du document

Many organizations have in recent years, undertaken an 'image makeover' involving changes in name or logo or advertising style or corporate identity in general. Sometimes all these have been changed. Using examples discuss the reasons why organizations may consider changes of this kind.

Many debates have been raised in the past decades concerning the benefits and harm which advertisements in the cosmetics industry can cause to society and women in particular. Ethics address questions about morality in a society, issues of right and wrong, good and evil or virtue and vice across cultures. Applied to marketing and communications, they enable critical study of a business's situation that involves both the positive and the negative impact they can have on society. The latter includes malpractices such as targeting the vulnerable or abusing of a country's economic weaknesses for example. Unilever is one of the major manufacturers of food, home care, and personal products offered in 170 countries worldwide. Through its famous brand Dove, the organisation has encountered constructive brand values that have raised the debate on women's portrayal in advertising. The latter will be the main communication tool developed in this study, yet internal communications and public relations will be acknowledged, their relevancy to the subject being considerable.

Extraits

[...] Unilever is one of the major manufacturers of food, home care, and personal products offered in 170 countries worldwide. Through its famous brand Dove, the organisation has encountered constructive brand values that have raised the debate on women's portrayal in advertising. The latter will be the main communication tool developed in this study, yet internal communications and public relations will be acknowledged, their relevancy to the subject being considerable. Moral principles define the right and the wrong of the marketing process. The individuals' interests and personal philosophy must coincide with those of the Company to achieve success. [...]

[...] Here, the organisation's objective challenges prevailing concepts of beauty and encounters different ways of thinking to spread the message with concern. The case considers various cultures, from the western to the eastern ones including China, the USA and Europe in particular. Ethics around the world clearly depend on the regarded culture but Dove's Real Beauty campaign is the same across countries. Dove has decided to implement its idea by generalizing the fact that women's self esteem is undermined by their portrayal in advertisements. [...]

[...] This implies that even nowadays, some countries still possess traditional values, where men have a greater status than women in general. Dove satisfies both cultures by portraying the reality of women, what they are, and how beautiful they can be. The brand does not position women as inferior but as equal human beings – regarding men and regarding each other. Another ethical issue concerns sustainable development of the environment. Dove uses Palm Oil in their products that cause damage to Indonesia's lowland forest. [...]

[...] Dove took the challenge to promote real beauty around the world. But the organisation should have done more research on consumer attitudes towards ads, especially in the USA where the campaign sparked controversy. Indeed, the models reflecting Dove's new concept of beauty were criticised to not fit the required standards (Adomaitis and Johnson, 2008). Clearly, ethics in marketing vary cross culturally and people from diverse parts of the world have different ways of conceptualizing the good and the bad in the portrayal of women through ads. [...]

[...] Dove has conducted a few advertising campaigns challenging the current way of communicating towards women. Two of the ads particularly brought up interest in the consumers with more than a million views on YouTube. These short films, “Evolution” and “Onslaught” both support Dove's Self Esteem Fund and contribute to their campaign for real beauty. The former consists in the transformation of an ordinary woman to a beautiful model seen on advertisements through make-up, airbrushing and the use of photo software. [...]