Unilever came up in class a couple of times, and I thought a few of you would appreciate this.
This is a clip from Steven Colbert's show, The Colbert Report. Here he discusses how Unilever socially constructs the problem of "unattractive armpits" and offers us a Dove product to save the day.
The Colbert Report
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Dove (owned by Unilever) is a really interesting case. As was also pointed out in class, they were among the first companies to jump on the bandwagon when there was a public outcry against Photoshopping. The following commercial was beloved, and spread around like wildfire--they wanted women to believe they were on our side. And instead of making us feel bad about ourselves, they were going to save the day....by selling us their product. Was that progress, or more of the same clever marketing?
Don't forget, Unilever owns more than just Dove. They also own Axe (Lynx in some parts of the world), which has often been called out for their blatant objectification and hypersexualization of women, in their advertising.
Here is a great podcast I found a couple of years ago, that really talks about this new type of marketing--selling us female empowerment as a product, with profits still the ultimate goal.
Here are a couple other perspectives, and critiques of these, and similar, marketing ploys.
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