Evolution of Beauty - Dove Campaign for Real Beauty
posted by Skyler at 8/28/2007 12:52:00 pm
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
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6 Comments:
I got inspired to put this on the blog when I saw a story on Close Up last week. A group of teenage girls were moved to start a group called the 'Go Girls' after seeing this Dove video on YouTube.
Their group was formed to promote healthy and realistic bodies, rather than the unrealistic airbrushed ones that are shown in the media. They also want to help prevent eating disorders. It's great to see young women take the issue into their own hands and talk to their peers about
it. See the close up story here: http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1321001
Love your Body Day is 18 October http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/
Good stuff! And can we have a group for balding men with beer bellies?
(Maps)
Campaign for Real Hypocrisy more like!! It sounds like it really is now a full on case of astroturfing from Dove.
Unilever, who own Dove, are still using the same old beauty standards in media for their other products which include Slim-Fast, Sunsilk, Rexona, Lynx deodorant etc.
Even worse, its subsidy company Hindustan Lever (Unilever) peddles a skin whitening product called Fair and Lovely with disturbing television ads about how it's more attractive to have pale skin than dark skin. Way to go, Dove.
(more on Unilever and Dove from Two Knives).
Why not love your body every day, not just when a marketting company tells us we may.
I agree totally that we should love our bodies everyday and I don't like the fact that the issue has been brought into the limelight by Dove (for their own commercial benefit and not to empower women). But the ad has raised people's awareness of what the beauty industry does to make models look perfect - airbrushing and extensive hair and makeup. It stimulated those teenage girls to do something on their own and to talk to their peers which is good.
Meanwhile, new on the Marxist Internet Archive:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/padmore/1947/madagascar.htm
Any comment???
I think the problem with astroturfing is that capitalist organisations co-opt people's authentic liberatory aspirations and then turn these towards their own purposes - i.e making money but also furthering the status quo. They harness what would otherwise be resistance. The radical potential for real change is destroyed.
In this case, young women have grown up in the shadow of the beauty industry. Their "awareness" of issues they already face in their lives is "raised" in a very limited and controlled way, and they get to let off steam without really rocking the boat. They can then "express" this in a number of ways one of which happens to be by consuming Dove products.
Meanwhile, Unilever keeps supporting its little fake grassroots projects with one hand and slapping them down with the other. It goes right on promoting beauty industry products with messages like 89% of moms admit they have let themselves go (you can even join their "hot moms club" for more "awareness" and talking to your peers about how even though you're a mother, you will still try to embody western beauty ideals)
Everyone wins, nothing changes.
I'm not disagreeing with the idea that oppositional practices can be formed around corporate bullshit or hegemonic media products. Hell, even Barbie dolls empowered some girls and functioned as a tool to negotiate the complexities of their impending adolescence etc etc.
I'm glad those young women feel inspired, but just don't think having one's politics co-opted by Dove is a good idea. Anything is a start, even this, but is the Dove campaign the only initiative out there - or is it the "safe" one, the one that's that's getting the press releases and media attention?
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