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Feminism Sells: An Analytical Explanation of Dove's Campaign
Dove is a personal care brand that has thrived for over a decade by combating the negative fear tactics often used by their competitors. Their Campaign for Real Beauty was launched in 2004 as a response to the realization of the average woman's self-confidence. Mentioned in their advertisement titled "Love Your Hair," "eight out of ten women feel pressured to wear their hair a certain way." This particular ad builds up to this statistic by presenting six women who each share their own story of how they have felt pressured to change their tresses.
Instead of presenting women who show somber, this ad displays women who are happy living with their hair however they like. For instance, a women with atypical colored hair describes how her hair does not affect her profession; similarly, another woman expresses that her natural grey hair is beautiful as is, regardless of what others say. Dove's 'Love Your Hair' campaign entertains the idea that insecure women should challenge current stereotypes about beauty and celebrate who they are with the help of Dove. The incorporation of ideas such as diversity, honesty, and publicity allow for Dove's altruistic campaign to still be a strategy of promotion.
In a society highly influenced by beauty standards, finding a style of promotion innovative enough to stand out usually entails aggressive schemes. Many competing beauty brands dwell on women's fear of deformation. Jack Solomon, a Professor of English at UCLA, wrote his article "Masters of Desire:
The Culture of American Advertising" to examine advertisements with the intent of proving their influence on America. Solomon begins his argument by examining the irony in America's reputation as a free and egalitarian society as compared to its competitively elitist reality and how advertisements play off of this. These styles imply that a person either desires to fit in with or stand out from a crowd. Dove, in this instance, proves to promote both and neither simultaneously, which defies Solomon's typically universal classifications of advertising tactics; instead, Dove suggests that their audience stand apart from society's standards, a typically elitist trait, in a way that allows them to not be superior nor uniform, but unique. This tactic of standing out to achieve belonging upholds the benefits of both advertising styles. As a result, both women who aspire to be unique and those who simply want to fit in can jump onboard.
Diversity is also an influential component of this campaign. The concept of diversity explains the act of appreciating the interdependence of people beyond just simple tolerance; acknowledging each other's differences and accepting one's rights to self-expression diminishes intolerance. The intended audience specific to this ad can be identified as insecure women, as they are the crowd that are most obviously influenced by the values and ideals that the ad projects. This is why the ad includes a variety women, including those of different ages, levels of professions, and races. The ad makes a strong effort to be as inclusive as possible to reach a broad audience. Since this advertisement is part of a campaign, one of the main goals is to get the conversation started. Incorporating such a diverse group of women creates a much larger horizon of turnout; the increased number of women that are able to connect to the advertisement ultimately exhibits the success rate of the campaign.
Honesty is one of many traits that sets Dove apart from most companies. Unlike many commercials that glorify a specific product to be genuine and innovative, Dove suggests that a person, not a product, already is. It is this honesty that deconstructs the fear tactic used by a large portion of competitor beauty companies. Another thing Dove does intentionally in this ad is it deliberately excludes mentioning any specific product. Doing so helps to create the impression that the audience is not required to do anything with their hair that they do not want to. Dove's disregard to promote any particular product allows the audience to feel as though they the most relevant aspect of the ad.
As a result, women who view this ad are able to feel a genuine and honest connection and are more inclined to recollect on this affiliation when considering their beauty purchases.
Word of mouth is a very powerful tool in a promotion, and Dove had this in mind when taking a more obscure approach to their campaign. While many believe this campaign's purpose is to solely improve women's self-esteem in our society, Dove is like any other a company paying real money for these short films. In order to run their business, they require the attention that this campaign provides them. Solomon addressed in his article another type of advertising tactic-one based off of captivation. He provides sex as an example of a way advertisements promote without regard to an audience's desires. Dove revolutionized a new way advertisement by essentially combining multiple tactics reviewed by Solomon. Doing this maximizes the ways in which this campaign connects to the audience, further assuring its success.
Society's standards of feminine beauty are bestowed in nearly all forms of popular media. Women constantly encounter advertisements littered with digitally edited models promoting outrageously priced beauty products that promise unrealistic ideals. This makes it exceptionally difficult for women feel confident in who they are in person. From a marketing perspective, Dove saw this societal dilemma as a way to approach their audience by showing them they are already the most beautiful version that they can be. Presumably, the most significant aspect of this advertisement is that it quickly strikes a chord with women in a way that resonates with them more considerably than the more common advertising styles.
This specific advertisement is based predominantly off of this philosophy; however, it is a common theme throughout all of Dove's hair-related advertisements. Instead of prompting a woman to change her hair, Dove suggests only to improve it in a way that makes her feel more confident and happy with it. Women who agree with this message are more inclined to refer to and buy Dove's products, as this is the company who gave them this idea to begin with.
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