DOVE-Do They Really Care?

 M/W 1:30

Dove: Do They Really Care?

I have always been a skeptical person. I enjoy debating, and I enjoy research...and my research has led me to believe that Dove is in it for the money, not the message. First things first, the message Dove is sending us. For those of you who don't know, Dove is a company that that makes beauty products, specifically skin care and soap, mostly targeted towards women. Now 10 years ago Dove decided to create a "Real Beauty Campaign." This campaign was meant to be directed at women who were being "criticized" by their community for being "ugly." The ad says that women, young and old, are being told that you have to be a size 2 to be considered beautiful. "Real Beauty" tells the message that everyone is beautiful, and that there is no "perfect figure." Now we all know that real beauty is within, we have been told that since we were children. But society has raised us to believe that being skinnier is better, even though we know better.

Now for my attack on Dove...The goal of about every business out there is to make money. To make money and eliminate competition. Eliminating competition leads to larger companies buying smaller companies, this leads to a monopolization (basically one company controlling every aspect of a product) of the industry. Today when most of us think about Dove, we think that they are a large company that sells soap. But in reality, Dove is just one of many companies owned by Unilever, a massive company who owns 50+ companies like Klondike, Vaseline, Lipton, and Alberto. But the most fascinating thing about this is that Unilever also owns Axe and Fair & Lovely. Both of these companies have product messages that directly contradict with Dove's Beauty Campaign. Axe basically has a message that says that if guys use Axe shampoo and conditioner, a group of cheerleaders will take off their clothes and fall on top of you. Now of course that idea is ridiculous. But that is the type of mentality these companies have when they try to sell their products. Unilever must of decided that they were going to "experiment" with Dove and target the "Fat Women" of the world with a BS campaign about real beauty, the message is good, but the true intentions of the Unilever differ completely.  

Now before you go on saying that I have no proof, listen to this. Before Dove started the "Real Beauty" campaign, they were grossing around 2.5 billion dollars a year, after the campaign had been in full swing, Dove had almost doubled their profits making an astounding 4 billion a year. There is no possible way that the hot shots in management didn't project this to happen. The idea is brilliant from a money perspective, but it undermines the message of "True Beauty" that we all need to recognize. This just goes to show you that in business, everything is about the money, not you.

-Elliott 

Resources:

http://www.in-mind.org/article/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-the-dove-campaign-for-real-beauty?page=4

http://www.forbes.com/sites/willburns/2014/04/14/the-outrage-to-doves-patches-advertisement-is-outrageous/

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-people-hate-doves-real-beauty-ad-2013-4

http://www.newsgeneration.com/2014/04/11/pr-case-study-dove-real-beauty/