Going by the trends, it was really hard to ignore this Pantene advertisement. This ad has garnered about 6.8M visits with 17K likes till today and the count is growing. Sheryl Sandberg’s vote helped no less!
The ad created by BBDO for airing in the Philippines has re-ignited a debate on perception of women in society especially workplace. There have been earlier attempts as well, but this seemed to have created a resonance. The ad basically talks about the differences in perception between a woman and a man for exhibiting similar characteristics. So for example, while a man could be called a boss, women will be referred to as bossy, similarly a persuasive man would be a pushy woman, a neat man would be a vain woman, and so on and so forth.
But aren’t these labels true? For in a male-dominated corporate world, doesn’t a woman need to be all these labels and more to show the same results as a man in a similar position? One reason, the ad has been trending so much, is because; it is all so very true. A woman today doesn’t just have to compete with men, but also compete with the challenge of establishing acceptance and credibility. And in doing so, she may end up looking bossy, pushy, vain, etc. reinforcing the stereotype. While this ad has got the required eyeballs and discussions going; I do hope it stirs debate on the very reasons that bring such labels.
Coming back to the advertisement per se, while the Pantene ad has broken away from the stereotype associated with beauty products, it definitely was not the first. That feat goes to Dove. Dove was instrumental in creating a campaign that questioned the very definition of beauty and this was way back in 2004!!!
Dove started a campaign in 2004 with the objective to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves.* This campaign started with a series of billboard advertisements and with the media exposure that it resulted, expanded to visual media with a series of television spots. In 2006, O&M started the first of the viral videos for the ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ series. First of the lot was ‘Daughters’ – an interview style piece that focused on the perception of beauty and their related impact on mothers and daughters.
This was followed by its most famous piece ‘Evolution’ – a piece that shows the transformation of an ordinarily pretty woman to a billboard model using makeup and a lot of Photoshop.2 This was one of the most talked about, critically acclaimed advertisement for a long time to come. Dove then followed up with a series of advertisements called Onslaught and Amy to follow up on this series. This series is still carrying on, the last being a set of Beauty Sketches that were released earlier this year.
What’s remarkable is Dove’s dedication to this campaign over the past 1o years; especially in a product category that inherently feasts on the insecurity of women. One cannot but compare the two campaigns; while the Pantene advertisement, questions the various labels and exhorts women to carry on despite labels; the advertisement still features models and does provide the visual imagery of advantages of ‘looking pretty’!.
Dove on the other hand goes for the jugular; it questions the very perception of beauty and asks people to look beyond and look within. For that, my hat goes off to Dove!
What is indeed heartening is the effort of brands to go beyond the immediate association and look to create an association that’s much deeper and meaningful. What is also encouraging is the positive reaction that’s coming in for such efforts. One can only look forward to more such campaigns!
* Dove Support Page: http://web.archive.org/web/20070816112659/http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/supports.asp?url=supports.asp§ion=campaign&id=1560
2 – Evolution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_(advertisement)
3 – Onslaught: http://youtu.be/9zKfF40jeCA
Temerecogitatio 