Dove is a classic beauty brand which started in 1957 as a bar of soap in the US, Dove is now an iconic family name. Dove’s Real Beauty campaign has consisted of a range of powerful videos and images, based on a research project, with the aim of making women feel good about themselves. Dove is a popular skincare brand that targets numerous countries around the world with their moisturisers, deodorants and hair care products. In 2017, Dove released a social media ad on their Facebook page of a black woman “transforming” into a white woman. The advert showed a black woman removing her top to reveal a white woman underneath after using Dove’s body lotion. As you can probably tell, there are many things wrong with this advert.
The problem with this avert and why some people may take the oppositional reading is that
The controversy caused by the advert is as clear as day. Not only is the advert racist, but it’s also insulting to viewers.
The campaign was instantly removed from Facebook while the owners of the brand Unilever, released a statement apologising for the advert. The scary thing about this advert is that is must have been approved at some point during the marketing process, which makes it worrying that nobody thought it would cause offence. This also wasn’t the first time Dove received backlash over their ads. In 2011 they came under fire for a similar image showing the transition of a black woman to a white woman after using their lotion. Tweets from users showed that people don’t just forget about these type of ads overnight. A bad ad campaign can leave you with a negative reputation for years.
In conclusion, as much as this advert is obviously racist some may just take the preferred reading that their product of skin lotion is good for the skin but the majority seen this to be controversial.