Strollerderby

While I like the Dove campaign a lot more than ads like Axe, it still is, in reality, advertising to sell products.  "Feel good about yourself! You are beautiful!  By the way, buy our firming cream so you can be more beautiful!"  As usual, it all comes down to making money.  I think you have to take things like television ads with a grain of salt.

I think another contradictory message being sent is that we need to be especially careful with the self-esteem of our daughters; but our sons?  Not so much.  One of the bothersome things about the Axe body spray ads (aside from setting up unrealistic portrayals of women) is the message to young boys that hey!  If you get chicks, then you're a cool dude!  Buy our cologne and chicks will flock!  How is that sending a good message to young boys?  (And yes, young boys wear the stuff.  Everytime I smell it I think of my 9 year old nephew who fairly bathes in it. Not sexy. I assure you.)

I like my realism mixed with a little idealism. The fact is that most brands are owned by a handful of massive global corporations. As consumers, I think we should absolutely speak up when a brand's messages are offensive (e.g. Axe's mo' stanky cologne, mo' action ads). But does one brand's b.s. negate another brand's positive impact? I don't think so.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is ultimately about building brand loyalty, but they are taking a different and more provocative approach than most beauty companies and I can get behind that. At the end of the day, Unilever is looking at brand performance in addition to their bottom line. So wouldn't it be nice if they learned that advertising with socially responsible messaging gets a better return on investment than predictable, sexist crap? Yeah, that's the idealism talking.

It's clearly clever marketing. I have boys and I'm so pissed off (from the other side of the gender pool) about the way these ads are portraying women (and GIRLS) to them... Grrrr... Makes it very difficult to raise them as gentleman.

Oh, and ... are you saying that Axe DOESN'T?! Damn, that money was sure wasted ...

http://twoknives.net/?p=346

two knives has had me using my brain too much on this issue.

this was a great post with great comments.

I have been thinking so very much about how we are raising our sons.

lilacspecs go me thinking about it with this post

lilacspecs.blogspot.com/.../littluns.html

I'm all crazy about getting my daughter to play soccer instead of princess but I need to start thinking about TV and Video Games marketed toward my son.  (he's only 17 months but ya know one day...)

It's always about $$. Dove just wants to make some, just like everyone else.

The message isn't coming from the mega-corp, it's coming from each unique brand.

Dove's message is popular because it resonates with its demographic. It's a great concept to market to 'real women' because that's exactly who is deciding to buy their product.

Axe's message is probably quite popular with its demo, too, but I'm not it. Kind of like those stupid Pizza Pop tv ads from years back -- didn't do a thing for me, but my 10 year old cousin loved the spots.

It's the goal of every ad to bring some kind of action from the audience and Dove's message conveys a warm, fuzzy feeling to us because it's a message their demographic desperately wants to hear in today's marketplace. Axe is just selling body spray, while Dove is selling an ideal. In the end, they're both selling something.

If social change happens as a spin-off of a marketing campaign, that's one hell of a campaign. Dove is hitting the right buttons.

But interesting that this kind of thing could make people feel betrayed by Dove and its parent company. MAN, freaking brands are so powerful, sometimes it truly amazes me.

Also, isn't Kraft part of the Philip Morris umbrella?!