A friend showed me this Adbusters ad spoof yesterday. I was really surprised to find out that Unilever owns both Dove and Axe. The companies both have such different perspectives on the way women are used in the commercial world. Dove has rebranded their whole image around the fact that all women are beautiful and should not be superficial, whereas Axe uses women as sexual objects. The whole tagline of the spoof is, 'Talk to your daughter before Unilever Does' as these images that are represented by one corporation can 'confuse' a young girl about what woman should be. I would also like to add that both companies have had huge success and both have really good commercials and effective marketing campaigns. I guess that’s just the advertising world, because most people would not even know that the two companies were related in any way.
Talk to your Daughter before Unilever Does
1 comment:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071128.WBnobodysbusiness20071128071149/WBStory/WBnobodysbusiness
Actually it's looking like this isn't just something that advertiser's know about. There has been a lot of recent backlash over the evolution spot as per the above GlobeandMail link. This topic has been the centre of much heated discussion in and outside of this class, and I can't say I can take a direct stance on either side. I think Axe has more problems than sexist advertising (ie. a pointless product) but this isn't stopping them from selling a boat load of product. I think the Dove ad's do bring out a positive message, but I don't think that Dove would deny the fact that they are about selling products. At the same time, how many non-profits are running on shady business practices? For every bottle of Axe being sold how many young girls are having their self-confidence boosted?
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