When it comes to media, especially advertisement, things are not always what they appear to be. For Instance, a company called Unilever owns products such as Dove, AXE, and Fair and Lovely. Many of you may not have heard of Fair and Lovely. Well it’s one of the biggest skin bleaching product in Asia.
To promote Dove, Unilever came up with a clever idea called the “Dove Beauty Campaign” which is all about embracing oneself and ignoring society’s idea of a perfect image. If you haven’t seen one of their commercials here it is...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I
And at the same time Dove’s sibling product Fair and Lovely contradicts Dove’s Beauty Campaign http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIUQ5hbRHXk. As you can see from watching the commercial for Fair and Lovely, lighter skin is considered pettier then darker skin. As said by the female reporter "The obstacle to obtaining my dream job was my skin”. This goes against Dove because Dove is all about loving oneself.
Dove Beauty Camping is promoting self-esteem for women but AXE uses women in a provocative way to promote their product http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDEF-w4rJk. In conclusion, company’s like Unilever are using media by manipulating consumers into buying their product.
My questions…
Do you agree with Unilever’s advertisement approach? Why or why not?
After seeing the video on AXE and Fair and Lovely does it change your views on the meaning behind Dove’s Beauty Campaign? Why or why not?
I would agree with Unilever's advertisement approach if I hadn't seen all three of these videos. The first advertisement about Dove's beauty campaign is an example of positive advertisement because it encourages individuals to love their body. The other two advertisements go against the message that Dove is trying to convey. In a way this changes my view on the meaning behind Dove's beauty campaign because the same company is promoting two totally different ways. They are going against each other. It seems like they actually don't care about their consumers, they just want to sell their products. If someone really cares about the way the media portrays individuals, they would go and buy Dove products. If someone doesn't really care then they would go and buy AXE or Fair and Lovely. Either way Unilever is making money.
ReplyDeleteI am fine with Unilever’s approach on advertising for their company. This is because their Fair and Lovely campaign’s advertisement shows us that light skin can do wonders for you and your beauty. The advertisement places emphasis on being fair, which would draw in a lot of consumers to buy their product (without a doubt) because a lot of people think looking good has to do with the skin colour’s complexion. The Axe advertisement tries to entice the consumers
ReplyDelete(females mostly) with the exotic fragrance of the perfume. This scent would augment the females’ attractiveness (more appealing). Their third campaign, the Dove one, is about self-esteem as the advertisement’s message is, “Talk to you daughter before the beauty industry does”. This is an excellent marketing technique (quite clever because Unilever makes beauty products itself), in my opinion, and I am sure a lot of people will find the message touching. Hence, a lot of people will start buying Dove products to “build” their self-esteem. Their approach will get them lots of consumers.
After seeing the Axe and Fair and Lovely advertisements, it does not change the meaning behind Dove’s advertisement for me. Unilever is playing a two-way game here, grabbing attention of all sorts of people. They made an attempt to attract those who think beauty is about being fair and sensual. They also wanted to reach out to those people who believe real beauty is about self-esteem and inner beauty.
I'd agree with their advertisement approach of encourages women to be comfortable with who they are and how they look but fair & lovely and AXE advertisements completely change my view on the Dove's beauty campaign. At the beginning, it seems like Unilever's approach of Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a campaign that inspires women to love their body and be comfortable with who they are and how they look. After seeing the fair & lovely and AXE video, we can see that they’re obviously not really trying to promote “real beauty”, but in fact it’s just another marketing strategy. Dove says real beauty comes from all shapes, sizes and age. Then why do they selling a product(Fair & lovely) which has a completely opposite message which Dove was trying to convey before? It emphasizes that their whole point of "real beauty" concept is all about selling their beauty products .
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Unilever’s advertisement approach because it's portaying two completely different messages. One messages telling women to be comfortable with themselves and don't rely on beauty products to feel better. While the other one completely contradicts their previous message. Which says that women should trust in beauty products and plastic surgery to feel better. After seeing the campaign rush by Dove, my opinion hasn't changed of them. They do not care about the consumers they just care about themselves.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with Unilever's advertising approach because when you compare all 3 commercials they are contradicting each other. By watching all 3 of the commercials I also disagree with their advertising approach because in the Dove Beauty Campaign they are saying that they want to help girls get their self esteem back but what they are really trying to promote is their products. If Unilever was to somehow put at the end of the Dove Campaign video that they are trying to sell their products and not try to mask it as only being a campaign to help girls I would feel better about it. I feel that if you are going to try to help people by creating a campaign don't try to sell them something at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most you, in my opinion our society today has many people that are conscious about themselves, and companies like Unilever is using peoples insecurity as an advantage to sell their products ex. Fair and Lovely. This causes consumers to believe the message media is sending, making them buy their product. And at the same time Unilever is using a different approach, as some would say more appealing to the consumers, to promote their other products ex. Dove and AXE.
ReplyDeleteSo now that you are aware of their advertisement approach would you continue buying their product? Personally, I would continue buying their product because I believe dove is one of the best product out there. At the end of the day, it's about supply and demand, all company want their products to be sold so their advertisement approach would be similar to Unilever.
Another question I have is, does it really matter the way the companies advertise their products or as along the product is good we all are okay with it?
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ReplyDeleteNow that I am aware of their advertisement approach, yes I would still continue to buy their products because just like you said there product is still one of the best out there and their products serve their purpose very well. I think what comes first is how good the product is, because if you have a job interview tomorrow most people would want to look clean and professional then dove would be one of the best products to have, so the way the company advertises ther products does matter but I think at the end of the day the quality of the products outweights how the company advertised their message.
ReplyDeleteAs everyone said i disagree with Unilever message because they only want to sell their product ,they don't care about anyone ,they just hope to sell their product and that's it.Even if one advertisement shows women to be who they are , the other two show something completely different , this shows you that they really only want to sell,nothing else.
ReplyDeleteNow that i am aware of these advertisements approach , i most likely will try not to buy these products. Also , i don't really buy dove products anyway ,so i am glad i do not contribute to their company.
Harshika, to answer your question, I personally do not think that it matters the way a company advertises their products, as long as the product is decent and worth me buying it. If the product works for you and you like it, then I think you should buy it. The advertisement for it shouldn't affect whether you buy something or not, it should just be there to promote it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like how you said that at the end of the day it's all about supply and demand. I think that is what every company has in mind and that is what they think about while creating these advertisements.
With the Dove commercials we see how the reason behind there campaign is to bring awareness to the youth and the parents to talk with their daughters about natural beauty so that they can have confidence and self-esteem. The Unilever is more like the contributors and Dave, AXE and Faire and Lovely, are the different campaign under that label. The wrong thing about their support on the different campaigns are that each share powerful messages like, to get your dream job you have to be a fair, light colour, and on the other hand there in a campaign promoting self-esteem. It is not fair to us consumers to mix messages because it causes us to believe that the products are not good, and that we are being lied to buying these products. I still am in support of the Dove campaign because they are making a difference in media, by adding educational facts, helping the world view the average, common people though different lens and not creating all there ads with stereotypical advertisement.
ReplyDeleteDo you agree with Unilever’s advertisement approach? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI strongly disagree Unilever's advertisement approach, because they want to somehow sell there products, and get money, they are not paying attention to anything else. They are just taking different approaches for different products so they can sell it. Fair and Lovely at one side shows to look whiter, and on the other side Axe, they are showing to be your ownself. Just like Harshika said they are minupilating, and this is true, because at one side, they are showing one thing and at the other side they are showing something else, which is just to get customers to buy there products. The only thing that seems wrong to me is how for the fair and lovely they show how to get your job you need to be fair, this is stereotyping, and it is totally wrong. The messages that they are conveying just don't seem right. At the other side, I also believe that all that matters is an advertisment to promote there product, nothing else really matters, becuase I have seen these commercials and I never really went into any kind of depth. After reading this I noticed what they are doing, I actually have used fair and lovely, and my mom uses it, and I think its a good product, so it does not change my view on this.