Dove Knows Best
Like in the world of Disney we have Rapunzel’s mother, who knows best, in the real world there is Dove. Dove, the soap brand and not the bird, thinks that women are idiots and if not that they at least are gullible enough to fall for their consumerist ideas of beauty, which they think are broad enough to be all encompassing. They are all encompassing so long as the women walking inside their studios are air brushed to deliberate imperfection, everyone’s happy. Last year’s sketch artist video which became hugely popular ‘addressed’ the issues of self image and how these women changed their perceptions after looking at their sketches made by the artist… you know the story. Then they launched this year’s beauty patch video, which really was the tip of the iceberg.
In this genius marketing gimmick Dove decided to give unassuming (or so they tell us) women a beauty patch with an unknown magic substance that is supposed to make them feel beautiful. These women were then supposed to report the changes they felt after using the patch. No points for guessing that the changes were all positive. And then it was revealed, to a batch women waiting to cry on cue, that the patch had nothing. A few tears here and there and the women finally realise that it was their innate beauty and not the patch, so now they can go home happily, stop on the way to pick up a few bars of Dove and continue to feel beautiful or whatever. Now really, you wonder why they never get the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s a valid question.
Jezebel’s Kate Dries in her article on the same commercial says “it’s about teaching women that Dove knows better. Dove is smarter. You should buy Dove because they’re on your side and they can teach you things.” But the smartest and the staunchest critique of the ‘Badvertising’ as Jezebel’s post tag calls it, came from a parody video by the online video network called Above Average Productions.
In the video, which follows the trajectory of the usual Dove videos, a group of women are asked a bunch of questions about beauty to which they give nonchalant answers. Then they are asked to look in the mirror by the cloying narrator who walks out of the room. Her voice booming from the public-address system says, “What do we as women really think about our appearance? The answers might surprise you.” Well, they do surprise you. In the mirror frame is standing someone wearing a guerrilla suit. “You look in the mirror and what you see is a disgusting zoo animal,” These women aren’t amused. They instead feel creeped out and offended. The video titled “#TRUEBEAUTY ─ Dove Real Beauty Mirror Test” manages to make Dove look desperate and insufferably arrogant. However, can it make Dove change its irritating habit of patronizing women and making them look like idiots? I think not, but only time will tell.
Manjiri Indurkar is a writer-journalist and poet from New Delhi. Her hobbies include reading, writing and eating (food and words, equally).