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Dove suggests women give ads a “makeover”

5 comments

Holly Peacock
WVoN co-editor 

In an effort to combat negative body image, skincare company Dove is running an ad campaign with a difference.

It has created a Facebook application that allows women to replace adverts exhorting them to lose weight or increase their breast size with “messages that help women feel beautiful instead”.

The ads typically show images of overweight women trying to squeeze into a pair of jeans, with copy lines claiming to help them lose 10lbs in a week.

They suggest that, in their place, women write positive and funny statements such as “The perfect bum is the one you’re sitting on” and “Think of your cups as half full”.

Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather UK is responsible for creating the Facebook campaign which is currently running in Australia.

It has already received positive reviews and is set to be rolled out across other global markets.

  1. vicki wharton says:

    Hmm, just can’t help thinking that the company that owns Dove also owns Lynx … and ads don’t prey on insecurities, they create them in order to sell the fix.

  2. Hey,

    I agree that some bad adverts can do both. Play on insecurities and create them.

    In the facebook ads you see about losing weight etc I believe they are playing on something you already feel (think about how they get there through targeted media, cookies etc) the Dove ethos aims to make women feel beautiful naturally and in a positive way.

    Because women respond to this it makes the ethos/product successful. If we then engage more with the brand through adverts like this and buy more Dove products advertisers will jump on the bandwagon and also start communicating in this positive way. In this sense we have an opportunity to dictate what adverts we view and how we want to be spoken to.

    Let’s face it there will always be advertisements and products to sell. In this instance we have a deviation from the norm that is working for both the brand and women which is great.

    • vicki wharton says:

      Yes, you’re right … am letting my cynicism re the umbrella company’s motives get in the way of nurturing good practice!

      • HA! or I am being too optimistic? it’s quite possible.

        • vicki wharton says:

          No, I think its good to encourage best practice and what you are suggesting is a strategy – whether it works will remain to be seen but at least its a more positive direction to go in than the Lynx stuff!

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