Oh, Hypocritical Unilever

Hearing about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty reassures me. It’s comforting to know that while the media is busy producing misleading messages, there are some like the Dove Campaign that make an effort to correct people’s view of what they see in the media and other campaigns, such as Axe.

The Axe Effect commercial makes me both laugh and roll my eyes. There’s a lot of sexism with this campaign – it makes women come across as shallow, desperate animals that will travel great lengths for a guy who (supposedly) smells good. It annoys me how they show women treating a guy like he’s a god; for doing nothing but dumping a bottle of Axe on himself. As if the Axe is all that matters.

Seeing this commercial makes me wonder about the producers: did they purposely try to make it so tremendously lame that it’s funny and would appeal to viewers, or did they honestly think some people would be naive enough to believe this and buy the product? When I take target audiences into consideration, I realize that perhaps this is who the campaign is aiming for –- naive people, specifically young children, who would believe anything they see. It’s a sinister way of marketing their products, but hey, it’s business. It is only expected, unfortunately.

Before I read the original blog post, I had no idea Dove and Axe were under the same company. When I learned they were, whoosh. There went my admiration and respect for Dove’s efforts in their campaign. Well, I suppose not all of it. It’s still nice knowing Dove is trying to raise self esteem and encourage real beauty, but once I knew the background information (that they were both under Unilever), I began to question Dove’s concern. Is their view of real beauty really genuine, or is it just another marketing scheme?

The parent company, in this case, Unilever, has full responsibility in ensuring that all their sectors have the same views. It’s completely hypocritical to say, “If you love your natural beauty, others will too. But in order for other people to love you entirely, you need a strong, overpowering smell. Buy Axe.”

In the past, I was happy buying a Dove product knowing it contributed to the Self Esteem Fund. Now, I’m more reluctant. Unilever is so hypocritical that for all I know, my contribution could be intended more for marketing or advertising than the actual charity.

They're Happy Because They Eat Lard

By looking at these ads, I can only imagine how I would interpret them had I been living or growing up in the time period they were released. Is this really how the media communicated with the public? The suggestions and messages of these advertisements are just unbelieveable – and I don’t mean unbelievable in the good way.

My first reaction to this advertisement was to roll my eyes. Great, it’s another one of the thousands of weight loss campaigns that probably involves diets and meal-supplements. Looking closer, I realize they are advertising weight loss via tapeworm. This company is encouraging the public to swallow tapeworms? Are you serious? So, if I want to lose weight, all I need to do is swallow some worms, get zero exercise, and eat all the junk and fatty foods I want? Yeah, don’t think so. How is that even a legitimate method of losing weight? This is one of the strangest and most desperate methods of weight loss I have ever encountered. It’s really alarming that so many people at the time were desperate enough to get thin, that they resorted to swallowing tapeworms. I hope that in modern society there are some health campaigns and regulations that restrict such methods.

Sexism, sexism, sexism. Any person would find this ad offensive. I could engage in an hour-long speech about how stupid and inaccurrate the message is, but this page only has room for so many words. “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere” – this message implies that a woman is not self-governing, and will follow a man around because he happens to hold Tipalet. I would compare this relationship to the way a dog would be under the control of its owner. Are the creators of this ad really so closed-minded that they couldn’t see how inappropriate this is? Fortunately, gender discrimination has diminished over the years since this was advertised. The media and generally everyone in the present see both men and women as equals.

This advertisement makes me suspicious. Why would doctors, the ones who are most knowledgeable about health issues, encourage cigarette smoking? Either the ad creators stretched the truth, or the public and media’s views of what’s healthy were distorted. In connection to the Tipalet ad, this shows that in the 50’s or 60’s when this ad was created, smoking was seen as more socially acceptable and ‘cool’ then than it is now. Today, the number of anti-smoking advertisements outweigh the number of cigarette advertisements, and I applaud the media for that.

“They’re happy because they eat lard.” Besides the literal definition, it’s unclear exactly what they’re trying to say. Because the family in the picture doesn’t look unhealthy in any way, I think this ad is mocking weight loss campaigns, such as the tapeworm ad. Instead of encouraging diets, the ad is encouraging the consumption of lard. Personally, I find this ad amusing and incredibly random. I do not see any offensive or misleading messages in the advertisement.

From looking at these ads and comparing them with present ads, I am glad to see that our view of what’s ‘cool’ or healthy is not as distorted as it was in the past. There are more anti-smoking and true-beauty campaigns than before, and the role of women has also changed. I can only imagine my reaction if I ever saw one of these strange ads on television or on the subway – ‘are they kidding me?’