unilever's doublespeak

Dove and Axe are both referenced frequently now for creating powerful, effective marketing communications that are focused and relevant to their respective audiences. Maybe doing such a good job with these two brands' marketing is why The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is calling out Unilever for saying one thing  and doing the opposite.

With Dove's Real Beauty campaign, they're taking a stand against marketing that creates an unrealistic and largely unattainable ideal for what beauty means for women. All the while with Axe (Lynx in the UK), they're using the exact form of marketing that Dove is going against - portraying models that fit this bill of unrealistic and unattainable beauty as lust-crazed women who can't help but ravish a man/boy wearing Axe.

It's a great example of how people are becoming more empowered to call for honesty from brands on a larger scale (or their parent companies in this case) and demand some kind of recourse. Sony Bravia is facing some of this same scrutiny right now, at least within the art and ad communities, and has addressed it publicly.

It will be very interesting to see if anything more happens here on the Unilever front beyond the quotes that appeared in the LA Times article.

Comments

[Ken Barber]

Looks like a lot of marketing professionals are picking up on this story. The Creative Director at my shop--Pure--was similarly bothered by this apparent "talking out of both sides of your mouth" behavior, and specifically the questions it raises about a company's "responsibility" to its various target groups. Such as, do they even have such a responsibility? Check it out at:
http://purethinking.typepad.com/pure_thinking_a_streamofc/2007/10/unilevers-confl.html

Ken

[Charles Frith]

I too have an issue with double corporate speak. I commented on this precise issue over here:

http://www.sandboxwisdom.com/sandbox_wisdom/2007/02/w_h_auden_on_au.html

Selling authentic beauty and then skin whitening creams to asian men and women needs a disclaimer on the skin whitening creams that Unilver embraces people of all colours. That's fine by me.