‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ by Dove!

It’s been a busy 10 days with my exams. While reading a case study for my exams, I came across the ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ by Dove. I used to use Dove soap when I was a kid. Today, Dove has evolved from just a soap bar into a various range of beauty products. I came across their ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’, the campaign which revolutionised a woman’s beauty. Unilever, which owns Dove, partnered with Ogilvy & Mather to come up with the campaign which has changed the way we presume beauty. It was a very impressive campaign which actually paid more importance for the cause than to its product. I think it was a gamble which the brand director of Unilever and the account director of Ogilvy & Mather took, and was successful to an extent, especially with the last part of the campaign; Onslaught, stating ‘Talk with your daughter before the beauty industry dose’.

I have to agree I loved the campaign at the beginning. Everyone is beautiful and the entire thing shown in the media about the highly ‘photo-shopped’ zero-size model is not the reality. Before the launch of the campaign, Unilever hired a psychiatrist, Nancy Etcoff, and psychotherapist Suzy Orbach (who had treated Lady Diana Spencer) to understand how women look at their self-esteem and describe beauty. It was followed by a series of ads interacting with the consumers about ‘real’ beauty. A very strong media planning went into action to create the buzz of the campaign. At the end, it had PR strategies that lead to the combination of the whole campaign creation: ‘Dove Real Beauty Award’ and ‘the Dove self-esteem fund’. 

It’s been a good 7 years since the campaign was launched. Although the campaign was successful in terms of creating brand awareness, it had to be taken down due to many criticisms; the 98 year old lady shown in the ad was not an average looking 90+ lady. Also, Dove had a history of using palm oil in its products, which relates to deforestation in Indonesia. This issue was taken up by Greenpeace to run a campaign called Onslaught(er) as opposed to the Dove’s ‘Onslaught’(The reason I stopped using Dove products - Onslaught(er) worked on me). There was also the issue of Unilever being two-faced, especially with its brand Axe/Lynx which is known for using women as sex symbols. A successful campaign can be criticized, but it does create a sensation and awareness.

Benetton Group: UNHATE Foundation campaign

Benetton Group which owns United Colours of Benetton (UCB) has never been away from controversies.  The campaign of a new born baby, unwashed with the umbilical cord still attached (Most Controversial Campaign according to Guinness World Records 2000) was one of the first controversial campaigns amongst others, which included 3 pig hearts (very similar to human heart), with white black and yellow written on it, a priest and nun kissing, and an actual photo of a Mafia killing that took place in about 1982, in Palermo, Italy (was developed by photographer Oliviero Toscani). The use of ‘shock’ advertising by Benetton Group is often criticized, but is still a major topic of discussion. They have done it again with the UNHATE Foundation campaign.

I had mixed feelings when I saw the new campaign of different world leaders lip-locked together. The poster I saw was that of the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy and the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel (I thought to myself, ‘now! When did this happen?!’). After reading the whole story, I Googled the other posters and was quite shocked to see the other UNHATE posters. I have to agree that the campaign was controversial, but also rendered a converse a deep message of the current world politics and the UNHATE Foundation campaign.

UNHATE Foundation has launched an integrated and interactive marketing campaign aimed at the youth (http://unhate.benetton.com/). I have also seen the website and I do support the cause of ‘creation of a new culture of tolerance’ (Although I am not sure whether it’s a part of their corporate social responsibility).  The campaign also promotes ‘Kiss Wall’ on the website, where users can upload their picture of kiss along with an ‘UNHATE’ message. There is also a video related to the campaign. It starts by showing faces of individuals, followed by a series of confrontations and ends with a mother kissing her baby. The video showed different relationships, including people of different race and ethnicity, age, gay sex and two girls in veils passionately kissing. It’s true, people will like the campaign or hate it, but at the end, they will be talking about it.