I know that we are all used to cosmetic advertising that tells us we are all filthy dirty swamp-things salvageable only through the use of [insert product here]. This commercial for soap, however, takes the cake in my opinion. Listed on the Dove website as "Soap Scum TV Ad" the ad admonishes women (because Dove is primarily marketed to women) that even though they may think they are clean because they have used soap, they are actually going about their day covered in a layer of disgusting soap scum. Poor deluded fools!

The commercial continues, "if you could see the difference..." & displays it with a side-by-side dramatized comparison which has the women in their towels under a UV light. The light reveals the scum, in tandem with some 'scare' music on the soap-using woman, who looks like she is suffering from an early-stage zombie infection. The Dove-using woman smiles to the tune of some new-age-y music... he skin feels how healthy clean skin is supposed to feel. You know. The feeling you can only get with Dove.

I mean, I'm all for being clean. The implication that women have to be clean under a pretend black-light in order to be socially acceptable is sort of annoying, especially when you contrast it to virtually any man's cosmetic advertisement. Men who preform basic hygiene functions, such as wearing deodorant, are God's Gift... women come after them in droves. Women, on the other hand, even when they bathe with soap, are just barely socially acceptable.
The fact is that I'm the last person who would expect a high level of respect or responsibility from the advertising industry, but Dove is the one brand you would think would know better. I don't think this type of marketing is great for their brand identity, either, and that just makes this that much more annoying.
Check it out:

(Cross-posted at Citizen Girl, with sad zombie picture ;)

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4 Comments

December 8, 2008 4:44 PM

[0+]  Rachel_in_WY said:

There are a number of great articles on the historical linking of women and dirt, including this one. Not a new theme, unfortunately.

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December 8, 2008 5:09 PM

[0+]  Ariel said:

I knew I had a problem with that commercial for a reason. It mainly bothered me that they couldn't get a real comparison between the two. It also bothered me that it doesn't matter if you have a layer of soap scum because your skin cells shed all the time. That's why there's dust, among other things. But I'm glad to see a sociological analysis as well, not just critical thinking. Right on Jane Awl.

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December 8, 2008 5:50 PM

[0+]  Jane_Awl said:

Thanks folks. ...and while I'm still annoyed, I'd like to ad that Dove is owned by Unilever- the same folks that make Axe.

And also that the 'wishes' tab (the second one)on their 'cost of beauty' feaure was really just breathtaking in a cool/miserable way: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/flat4.asp?id=6129

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December 9, 2008 6:58 PM

[0+]  instrumentjamlord said:

I'm not sure I buy the angle being "you have to be THIS clean or you are a disgusting woman" as much as "other products leave something all over you that (despite the fact you just bathed in it) now might as well be snot." (Or something else. What other body fluid glows under black light? Any guesses that figured into the fevered imaginations of the ad execs?)

That said, I liked where they call it "artistic dramatization." More concisely spelled L-I-E.

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