Excuse me, while I wash my mouth out with Dove

In my previous post, I'd fawned over Dove's brand positioning and their latest 'Beauty Sketches' video on youtube.

Yesterday, I was randomly flipping through the Idiot Box trying to find a programme that was not logically-twisted propaganda or mind-numbingly superficial. I didn't find any, but I did happen to see a Dove ad - and I knew then and there, that I'd been HAD!

The Dove 'Beauty Sketch' is a brilliant example of how two-faced Advertising can become. The creative team (in North America) works on a brief where the brand, Dove, is described in terms of unicorns and rainbows. But in the real world - in local markets - the expediency to turn a fat profit makes their true colours quite obvious.

Dove wants you to believe that their brand is unlike the rest of the "beauty" industry which assaults the minds and self-image of little girls with a never-ending deluge of self-loathing.


Buuut, if you want silky smooth skin... You need Dove.


Aaand, if you want beautiful hair... You need Dove.


Sometimes I think Advertising is just a horrible, horrible way to make a living.

Being duplicitous is one thing - but being a Unilever brand means that Dove comes from the same Augean Stable that peddles chemical panaceas for everything you lack physically - including skin colour! Here's an ad that can make your skin crawl...
And many, many others like it.


I just wish I'd seen this guy's video before shooting my mouth off about Dove's despicable scam.

How advertising (too) can be beautiful

You'll remember the Dove 'Evolution' TVC. At the time it had impressed me as a sort of 'Anti-advertising Ad'. Well, at the very least it was a singularly bold move by a cosmetics brand. Especially since most multinational brands had been, for some time, content with tip-toeing cautiously around "safe" ideas.



Dove has now gone ahead and done something truly, incredibly brilliant! In all honesty, the 6-odd-minute spot below has revived my somewhat flagging hope of seeing intelligent advertising based on real insights and the ever-elusive "human truths".

I love it more because it is consistent with Dove's concept of shining the light on unattainable standards of beauty (projected by conventional advertising). But here, the concept has somehow been lifted-up and turned inward... A powerful beam of light is shone not just at the faux advertising-inspired misconceptions of beauty - but also at a woman's own perception of her looks.

And it is simply beautiful.



I do wish we'll see a lot more use of simple "human truths" in advertising.

(In fact it's about time we do something similar for RealFood as opposed to the toxin-laced, sugar/salt/slime/chemical-laden junk in colourful plastic packets meant to attract little children - that passes for "food" on supermarket shelves.)

It's not called TV "programming" for nothing

Conan O'brien has done it again!

Watch the mindless mainstream media puppets, called news anchors, breathlessly yelling (note the loud modulation) the point-of-view that YOU urgently need to believe.

RT has added the very crucial point here that beyond the sheer airheadedness, this shrill tone and parroting could well be misleading coverage of a serious event tomorrow!

This uni-dimensional coverage is present in mainstream news media across the world, right down to the voice modulation. It would seem that some secretive cabal somewhere decides what constitutes "news" - and more importantly, how it is presented to you and me.

It's not called TV "programming" for nothing.



Seriously, I am beginning to feel a little afraid for Conan.