I absolutely love this viral video ad, titled “Onslaught,” from the Dove soap people and their ad agency Ogilvy & Mather. It takes some well-deserved shots at the “beauty industry” for luring young girls with all sorts of unattainable body images.
But Advertising Age points out:
Dove is a brand from Unilever, which isn’t so enlightened when it comes to Axe/Lynx — whose ads portray women as slinky sex toys — and Slim-Fast, which encourages exactly the kind of yo-yo dieting so vividly dramatized in “Onslaught.”As for Ogilvy, well — in a bit of horrifying/delicious irony — it is actually the U.S. agency for the Barbie doll. Oops.
What’s next? Will NAMBLA start piously warning our sons about “stranger danger”?
Update (Nov. 28): Toronto Star marketing columnist Jennifer Wells picks apart Unilever’s hypocrisy, with help from a YouTube artist who re-cut the commercial to include all-Unilever footage. Fun!
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