As a loyal customer of Dove, I questioned the genuineness of the company while analyzing the controversy behind its evolution campaign for Real Women and Real Beauty. Taking into consideration how the ethos of the company were developed and how it benefited from campaigning during kairotic moments to purposely communicate how media lowers self-esteem for women, Dove came across as a compassionate beauty product company. However, after evaluating the campaign in contextual terms as it is affiliated with Axe, which degrades women, it waned Dove as the ultimate trustworthy company for mothers to buy for their daughters.
I chose this essay to display as one of my favorite work as I not only learned to be economic with my word choice but had the opportunity to analyze an item in contextual terms and finally see a different side of Dove that I never knew.
Link to the Dove's Evolution Commercial:
Evolution Commercial
Below is the Rhetorical Situation Essay:
I chose this essay to display as one of my favorite work as I not only learned to be economic with my word choice but had the opportunity to analyze an item in contextual terms and finally see a different side of Dove that I never knew.
Link to the Dove's Evolution Commercial:
Evolution Commercial
Below is the Rhetorical Situation Essay:
Dove's Evolution Commercial and its Campaign Controversy
Dove's Evolution Commercial and ultimately the Real Beauty Campaign, which first appeared on ABC's Good Morning America in October 2006 makes a powerful statement about the reality, or the lack of reality of beauty. Presenting an argument that women are beautiful regardless of their size, age and race, Dove develops its ethos as an altruistic and dependable company. Real Beauty Mission statement was a global effort launched in 2004 as a starting point of societal change and acted as a catalyst for widening the definition and discussion of beauty. The one minute commercial and overall the campaign was highly praised for its compassion. However, there are many controversies that surround this campaign due to its relation with Axe. This essay aims to analyze the ad and how it develops ethos and takes advantage of kairotic moments as it significantly targets female audience due to its prevalence in internet and exigence. Taking into consideration the controversy of authenticity of Dove's motives for the campaign, it will be argued that Dove may not be the best beauty product company to wholly trust and rely on.
First exploring the visual and aural style of the commercial and how it develops ethos, Dove's evolution commercial begins with the typical noises of the studio as the main character, an average looking young female is first seen in the dark, with all of her blemishes exposed. In correlation to the amplifying speed and volume of classical music, the woman's look evolve due to artificial means such as makeup and computer graphics. Depicted as an object as various hands perfect her, the countless alterations ultimately lead the final product to be posted on a billboard as a beauty product ad. The exposure of the creation of artificial beauty enforced by the media arouses many emotions—anger, betrayal and shock. What Dove is trying to convey through this commercial is how other beauty product companies manipulate technology to generate impossible-to-achieve beauty whereas their company is more genuine and compassionate. The fact that Dove's products are no where to be seen in the ad except that the beginning established Dove as the creator of the mini film, helps the commercial to develop the ethos of the company. It also grasps more audience, especially those who detest synthetic beauty. The commercial concludes with the line, “no wonder our perceptions of beauty is distorted,” referring to society's need for perfection even if it means creating artificial beauty. The black and white difference between Dove and other beauty product companies instigate positive ethos of the company, dependable enough for mothers to trust Dove's products for their daughters.
An instrument that played a large role in popularizing this commercial and the campaign in whole, was the Internet as it set perfect kairotic moment for Dove to gain more audience. When Dove entered the realm of social media using their campaign for Real Beauty launched by Unilever in 2003, this created the turnaround for the brand, increasing its popularity and positive social reputation. Establishing ethos of the company in a positive light, the first stage of the campaign began with a series of interactive billboard advertisements. They showcased photographs of regular women and invited passers-by to debate, “what is beautiful?” and vote whether a particular model was either “Fat” or “Fab.” Then in 2006, Evolution commercials were incorporated in October, in order to coincide with the start of the Los Angeles Fashion Week and was shared on YouTube shortly after. While it has remained a largely internet based campaign, Evolution has taken advantage of the kairos that media provides, as it purposely released their commercials during shows like The Hills and Fashion Week in order to arouse more relativity to real life. Due to the fact that kairos point to the situatedness of arguments in time and place and the way in argument's suitability depends on the particulars of a given rhetorical situation, Dove has taken Internet as a kairotic place to escalate viewers, mostly female audience. Dove's social media activities are clearly targeted to women only as there is no community on the Dove men website. This is because men and women interact differently online. According to a study conducted by the University of Southern California, men show signs of “networking fatigue,” whereas women are more prevalent in online interaction. That is, sixty-seven percent of women and only half of that percentage of men under forty feel as strongly about their online communities as they do their offline communities in 2010 (Dove and New Media). Similar to Twitter, Facebook, and other websites that are very much prevalent in our society today, Dove also displays a combination of real-time and asynchronous information, which can be seen on the Dove 'wall', discussion boards or throughout video and photo comments. Thus, Dove used the Internet and released the commercial at kairotic times that inflicted women to feel insecure. This powerfully communicated Dove's genuineness and determination for Real Beauty.
In addition to taking advantage of how Internet and shows such as The Hills and Fashion Week provide perfect kairotic moments to grasp more female audience, Dove's commercial responded to exigence, retorting to media's artificial beauty as it affects young women and their waning self esteem. Through various surveys, Dove argued that ninety-two percent of girls want to change at least one aspect of their appearance (Dove Ad, Wanderings). In reaction to this, Dove conveyed that they believe all girls deserve to feel comfortable and beautiful in their own skin, despite their size, color and age. Through the development of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, the company reveals the extent to how other beauty product companies set impossible standard of beauty and since it is artificial, young female adults should not buy into their products—but Dove's as they are better, reliable and trustworthy. This call for self-esteem for women not only serves the purpose to spread awareness for media's artificiality and how women should feel beautiful no matter the circumstances, but also manifests Dove as a humane and compassionate company. This fitting response to women's diminishing respect and admiration for their beauty demonstrates Dove as an exemplary beauty product company.
However, despite the fact that Dove has successfully established positive ethos of the company through the use of kairos and exigence, it must be taken into consideration the controversy of being associated with the same company as Axe. Under the multinational corporation Unilever, Dove and Axe both supply body products for female and male such as shampoo, body wash, and lotions respectively. Axe is a line of teenage boy's toiletries and thus their target market is young men and positioned Axe line as products that will attract women to the man using Axe. From the “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” commercials where they convey that the more Axe product a man uses, the more gorgeous, thin, supermodel women will want them. The commercials are based off the idea that the painstakingly sexy woman, a body image unattainable by the great majority of real women, is ultimately what men want. Recognizing this discrepancy, “consumers felt that Unilever did not really care if their daughters have high self esteem and self confidence.” (Dove Ad Backlash) The controversy made the news and thus Unilever was forced to make a statement regarding the discrepancy. As Unilever’s chief marketing officer, Simon Clift argued that Axe commercials should be taken with a pinch of salt and it's just the spoof on the mating game. Although Dove and its various Real Beauty campaigns won many hearts in the beginning, the controversy waned their image as a totally dependable and genuine company.
Therefore, in just one minute commercial, Dove and its Real Beauty campaign successfully established ethos of the company through the use of kairos and exigence that gathered more female audience and attracted even those who disdain artificial beauty. While Dove does separate itself positively from other beauty product companies in the commercials and through the campaigns, the controversy of being associated with Axe that undermines women as sexual objects cannot be ignored. It is up to the audience to either support this type of message and advertising technique and choose to not purchase Dove's products. Taking into consideration that Dove is associated with Axe, mothers may have to think twice before buying Dove products for their daughters, if they are purchasing them for the purpose of supporting the Real Beauty campaign.
Works Cited
Clement, Virginie and et.al, “Dove- Social Media Activity”: April 23, 2010.
“Wanderings: Dove Ad Campaign for Real Beauty”
Brookes, Maggie, “Body Image Messages from Unilever: Dove and Axe Promotional Controversy”: June 7, 2010
