Slate calls it "more cheap feminism from Dove" and they're talking about the Cream Oil ad that debuted on Oscar night. Watch the cream oil ad here. It is yet another step in the "embracing real beauty campaign" where real women - or cartoons - take the place of airbrushed supermodels, shocking by being perfectly normal.
I still can't shake the feeling, though, that this reasonable impulse is a bit misguided. Dove's appeal to righteous sisterhood is just another flavor of marketing. And it's not particularly grounded in reality. Are we meant to believe that Unilever, the company that makes Dove, is a force for good? How to reconcile this notion with the ads for another Unilever product, Axe body spray, in which nearly every woman shown is a skinny, fashion-model-gorgeous nymphomaniac? (And by the way, Unilever also offers Slimfast, in case you're not quite as happy with your body as the Dove girls are.)
Well, yeah, duh. Of course it's just another marketing tactic - but as it zigs instead of sags (pun!) it sticks out, and dare I say even works well as the original campaign has quite a following.
Their consumer generated/user generated ads however, don't. The "Knowing You're Beautiful" commercial by Lindsay Miller, a 22-year-old TV production assistant coordinator of Sherman Oaks, California is basically the same old 'read the brief in an entertaining manner' concept seen shilling thousands of products every day. "Your skin has never felt like this!" she says, and perhaps not but we've heard that line before.
Miller said, " I've been intrigued by the recent trend in advertising of having mere mortals make commercials that end up on national television, so the contest caught my attention immediately.
I'm not sure, but Miller might be under the false impression that us adgrunts are some sort of Gods. I won't correct her if you won't. ;) The only place this ad "stuck out" was on youtube, where the community had a hissyfit about the ad for being an ad. An ad that asks the youtube community to make an ad.
Some reactions were against it, like this one.
by Vlogger oneparkave
Others actually made some sort of ad, like this little Psychedelic ditty. Stoner cream wash! ;)
And while we're in pharma-land, why didn't this guy win with his musical ad? Too much skin? ;)
The thing about user generated ads, is that you can't ask the users to stay on brief.
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Interesting that the first "Guru" didn't pronounce "Unilever" or "Olgivy & Mather" correctly. And so what if the Dove video got thousands of One Star ratings? The YouTube ratings system is like a hen-house pecking order. The little dopes see a vid has been rated low so they all join in the fun and gang up on it. Not many people bother to rate anyway. And it can always be manipulated. Dove probably need to bear that in mind if they're gonna try this again - set up hundreds of YouTube accounts and "seed" the video with 5-Star ratings until it reaches "Critical Mass". The lemmings will follow - even if it's a real stinker. You're welcome.
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PermalinkDabitch,
But I agree with a lot of your comments on the Dove commercials -- as well as Shelly Palmer's analysis.
Overall, I think the campaign is ok. It stands out. But I was not a fan of the "user-generated" one made by Ms. Miller. (Though, I did find her comments about "mere mortals" amusing.) I thought the production value was pretty low, as well as the creativity. It wasn't very different than a traditional ad - just with poor video quality.
- Kimberly
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PermalinkThe first video reminded me of something Caffeinegoddess posted on Cup of Java about polls (Wednesday, February 28, 2007).
There's no direct line of connection between the two, I just thought about polls and ratings and how they might not be as meaningful and important as some people think they are - as I think malkie66 has already expressed.
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PermalinkBack to the first video again:
Comments don't mean much of anything; especially ones on the 'net. Just because someone (like me) has a computer with internet access, and then (usually) anonymously comments on something does not mean that person (or me) knows what he or she is talking about.
Criticism is valuable when it comes from a trusted source, but being concerned with what some people on YouTube wrote (with all the spelling and grammatical errors) is simply ridiculous.
The intent of the Dove YouTube video was to get someone to create their own Dove commercial. It worked.
Lindsay Miller's commercial didn't interest me. I didn't find it very creative. It sounded like she was reading directly from the script without having any acting skills. But I don't buy Dove products, so what do I know?
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PermalinkNice points TDD. I think also the whole point of getting people to create commercials is also more of a way for a brand to juice more press coverage out of a project rather than the result being some amazingly creative piece of communication.
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Permalink"Viral 101" step one involve the consumer. We've seen that trick employed since the dawn of advertising and the first jingle/tagline/photo contest. Now that nearly everyone has a video-camera and easy editing programs it's all the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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PermalinkHey gang.
I am the guy in the third video. The one showin all the skin;)
I liked reading all the comments and views here and many thanks to whatever nut case posted my video here.
A couple notes and thoughts here.
Firstly, I never actually sent the ad to Dove. I never expected it to get picked an I am pretty sure I created it about a month late.
I was very new on youtube and I wanted to grab as many hits as possible at the time. I figured that I would drain a few off the ad campaign by makin fun of it. Riding on the coattails of a giant corp an their multi million dollar ad didn't hurt MY cause one bit.
I didn't care about Dove at all. My goal was exposure to the population at youtube and thumbing my nose at the "giant corporations" was the way to do it.
I created an ad which I knew no exec in their right mind would ever use and no censor would ever allow. I actually went outta my way to make something that the pro ad writers would laugh at. Getting hits, getting exposure, makin fun of the campaign an gettin the ad writers to laugh were my main goals. In other words I made an ad for myself and used Dove to help distribute it.
I have worked in the film industry for 26 years and I may have learned a thing or two about getting peoples attention along the way ;) I think it worked out quite nicely for me and Dove both. Since so many people saw it and laughed at it an commented on it the goal of Dove which is ultimately getting name recognition was still helped out in a round about way.
I think it's true that so far ad people don't have a clue how to cater to the youtube crowd the way some of the rest of us have learned how to do. My goal is ultimately to write ads an jingles which others respond to. I represent and understand a HUGE demographic which I think most ad people are still either unaware of or still afraid to go after.
If you go to youtube an look at my songs you will see that most are 4 or 5 stars out of a possible 5. I am still not that well known there yet but I have only been on for a very short time. I think it's safe to say that within the year I will be very well known there if my growth rate continues. And I haven't even taken the camera off my desk yet! 26 years of paid Hollywood film School in 5 unions seems to be paying off >:)
Anyway, that's my story and thanks again to whoever decided to put my video here. I gotta go back to shameless self promotion now!
If anyone is looking for a person who understands the tube, I am available. Check out my channel on youtube. Just follow that video or go to youtube an search for thechurchofdave.
Sincerely
DAve
AKA thechurchofdave
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