Comments on: The Making of a Billboard Model

By: olivia

olivia — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:00:24 +0000

Very interesting James and thanks for going into details. Personally I think the Dove models are very pretty – they just have normal womens figures that aren’t currently considered all that fashionable. Hopefully that will change. I would love to see advertising like this used so widely that real women are considered normal again so our boyfriends don’t secretly measure us against emaciated models and girls that look like boys anymore.

However I didn’t know about the Lever FabergÃ© thing and I agree with you that they are definitely benefiting in both directions and its very unethical. Very clever.

By: James

James — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:23:41 +0000

I think Dove are mean-spritied in that their campaign is *only* there to sell more Dove products. The way they’ve co-opted the issue of the appalling ways marketing (ab)uses people’s self-esteem in order to sell products is vile. Yes, the cosmetics industry is abusive but I’m mighty suspicious at hearing that coming from a cosmetics company.

The concept of modelling with ‘real women’ is also dubious. It seems patronising or sneering: these people aren’t conventionally beautiful, just like you, but that’s OK with us. In fact, say Dove, you mustn’t opt out of being beautiful just because you don’t feel up to scratch.

Besides which Dove is owned by Lever Faberge. They own conventional ranges that use models rather than ‘real people’ as well as Lynx, which alone torpedoes any ‘feminist’ credibility Dove could ever have. Dove are simply segmenting the market so Lever Faberge can have their cake and eat it.

All of which is possibly a little ranty for a blog comment – no disrespect or discourtesy is intended!

By: olivia

olivia — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:59:09 +0000

I don’t know much about their promotion except what I’ve seen. I like that they use models who look like real women we can all identify with. Their product makes your skin look more moisturised and healthy… it doesn’t claim to make you look any more “radiantly beautiful” than the real women who model for them whereas other beauty products go to beauty extremes we can’t ever reach.

I am fascinated though to know more about why you think their campaign is mean-spirited and where the double-standards come in if that is what you were trying to say. Please tell me more.

By: James

James — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 06:00:08 +0000

I hate the Dove ‘self-esteem’ promotion. I think it’s as cynical and mean-spirited as the ideals it claims to oppose. It’s a genius piece of marketing but Dove are still selling ‘beauty’ products.