Not so long ago, I posted a clip created by Dove that takes a little swipe at the beauty industry and about how we’ve allowed completely unrealistic ideals of beauty to take over. (click here to view original clip ) In the clip’s time lapsed duration, we witness the "raw palette" of a woman (complete with a few pimples and a mole or two) undergo the hair and make-up transformation that many women, transgenders and other gender illusionists (www.transfriender.com) undergo on a daily basis. The photo shoot continues: flash, click, "more wind on the hair," flash, click, click. Ok. No surprises there. Just another photo shoot. But then we see the next step: the swift Photoshopping of an image of our model. We see her neck get stretched, each eye and eyebrow made bigger and lifted, her hair moved around a bit to accommodate her new neck and an overall smoothing of her skin. In essence, the message is that through beauty advertising, we’re being fed images that represent "beauty" using models who don’t even exist.
At the same time, Dove is firmly planted within the beauty industry and a Dove advertisement only helps to bring attention to….Dove. It’s not like the Dove corporation is a selfless, non-profit organization out to blow the whistle on beauty advertising. Somewhere, someone might think, "Oh, that Dove ad is so right on…" while they’re out shopping for beauty products at the market. And furthermore, feel better about themselves choosing a Dove bar of soap: "I’m going to wash my dirty, pimply face with Dove soap, because they’re doing what’s right."
In my book, parody is closer to godliness than cleanliness. Since posting the ad here on A Shaded View, a few people have brought my attention to some parodies of this Dove ad. I’m sure that are (or will be) more, but here are a few. Some are better than others, but at least it shows that a range of people are thinking about Dove’s efforts (in both feel-good moments and marketing ploys) in different ways:
this one from an anti-beer lobby, i’m sure….
and finally, an editorialized edit of the clip, suggesting what the clip really is for Dove:
Dino Dinco
(who is much more beautiful in the inky shadows of darkness)
