Campaign for Real Beauty = Real Hypocrisy

Unilver's product, Dove has been running 'Real Beauty' campaigns for a few years now.  The images are of real women in all their natural beauty.  The message is impowering, beautiful, surprisingly honest and sincere.  LOVE your wrinkles. Love your shape.  Love your size.  Love your age.  Love your color...OH wait not your color because it turns out that outside the states there is a beauty campaign going on as well but the message is a little bit different than in the U.S. their version is; White Beauty.

In India Dove and Ponds market skin whitening creams with the message fairer is better.  Lighter skinned girls keep the man, get the job, find their true happiness.  White skin equals modern which equals success.  A sad message, a hateful message, a disappointing twist to an empowering campaign.  Why would a company want to empower American women to love themselves and Indian women to hate themselves?  I will not buy Unilever products again unless I hear of a change to their campaign strategies.

Here is a series of Ponds White Beauty commercials:

Being a Woman is NOT a Pre-existing Ailment

Read a related arcticle about this at Jezebel.com.

Advertising from the past

So the past couple days I've been looking for anti women advertising campaigns.  I have not conclusion.  It's all very interesting, quite irritating, and sometimes it turns my stomach.   I have a theory though which is that man's anger towards women is becoming more transparent with time.  As our equality balances out and man's ability to oppress women becomes more difficult some very angy ads have surfaced.

Below are some images I've found which I would date from doldrums through to last decade.  The marketing images were much more milder.  Where Dolche and Gabana's rape scene to advertise a clothing line was subtly hostile - I think most people would even see it as a violent scene...sadly.  These images from the past were quite boldly misogynistic in a way that angers me even more.  I find it very difficult to find humor in these ads.

Print Ads Disappoint Again

I was flipping thru a copy of US weekly while waiting for the Doctor and I came across an Energizer Battery ad that left me disappointed.    Later at home I got online to see if their entire current ad campaign was online.  It was.  So first off I saw this add that donates 50 cents per purchase for the Cure.  Thats awesome, I like to see that.

But then I saw the rest of the campaign.  One ad is directed at wannabe Spaceship commanders and the other at wannabe Rockstars.  Lame but whatever right.

Below are the other two which I also find lame but offensive as well.