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Though many people were shocked and taken aback when Dove initially launched their latest big marketing tool, Real Beauty — gasp! Women sauntering around on set that were larger than a size 6 or 8? Women who clearly had “problem areas” on the backs of their thighs that were not going to be airbrushed away? The lunacy! — has taken a more mainstream step into today’s marketing, and Paula Abdul says it best: “one step forward/two steps back.”
Dove’s latest legacy with the Real Beauty campaign says it all. A new casting call wants women with “flawless skin” and “no scars.” Because clearly, slightly rippled (or even hugely dimpled) thighs and C-section scars peeking out from beneath two-piece bathing suits turn the public off to Dove, and all of its beauty products, too, so we can’t have that, right? The casting call also states that they want “fit” women, and women who don’t have tattoos. I think, Dove, that you’ve alienated at least 95% of “real” women by setting such high standards for the newest installment of your commercials and advertisements alike.
According to the ad, which was placed on Craigslist:
DOVE “REAL WOMEN” PRINT CASTING JUNE 28-30, 2010 in NYC
ABSOLUTELY NO ACTRESSES / MODELS OR REALITY SHOW PARTICIPANTS or ANY ONE CARRYING A HEADSHOT!!!!
REAL WOMEN ONLY!
LOOKING FOR 3-4 REAL WOMEN for a DOVE PRINT CAMPAIGN!AGES 35-45, CAUCASIAN, HISPANIC, AFRICAN AMERICAN, & ASIAN!
SHOOT: SUNDAY, JULY 18 in NYC! MUST BE AVAILABLE FOR THE SHOOT!
RATE: $500 for Shoot date & if selected for Ad Campaign (running 2011) you will be paid $4000!
USAGE: 3 years unlimited print & web usage in N. America OnlyYOU WILL BE PHOTOGRAPHED FOR THE CAMPAIGN IN A TOWEL!
BEAUTIFUL ARMS AND LEGS AND FACE WILL BE SHOWN!
MUST HAVE FLAWLESS SKIN, NO TATTOOS OR SCARS!
Well groomed and clean…Nice Bodies..NATURALLY, FIT Not too Curvy Not too Athletic.Great Sparkling Personalities. Beautiful Smiles! A DOVE GIRL!!!
STYLISH AND COOL!
Beautiful HAIR & SKIN is a MUST!!!PLEASE SUBMIT SNAPSHOTS of FACE & BODY ASAP & WE WILL CALL YOU IN FOR A CASTING NEXT WEEK 6/28-6/30 in NYC!
urbanproddovecasting@gmail.com
Dove, I’m disappointed in you. I thought you were better than that. I really liked your exfoliating bar, too, so it’s a shame.
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I like how you immediately assume that a Cragislist ad posted by someone using a gmail with “Dove” in the name is definitely absolutely an official thing from Dove. Just because you aren’t a journalist doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bother at least trying to check some facts, yeah?
http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2010/06/dove_seeks_women_with_flawless.html
That’s the original article where I found out about the ad. There’s actually a lot of people (and many, many other articles) who came to the same conclusion — some of whom are journalists, unlike myself, as you pointed out.
Dove then released a statement saying that their ad was an “unauthorized mistake,” but many people feel that Dove is still ultimately behind this.
http://www.styleite.com/media/dove-craigslist-ad-statement/
The NY mag lacks the delicious sauce as well, but that statement is something you should’ve included in the post, otherwise it just looks like you’re gettin’ riled up about a CL ad that literally anyone could have posted.
Immediately dismissing Dove as liars is a little tabloid-y, don’t you think? Especially when they cite that they’ve had many shoots in the campaign with women who fall outside the restrictions in the CL ad…including the lady in the photo you’ve used for this very post?
I thought the exact same thing.
Agreed. I heard about this somewhere else, Feministing I think, and thought the same thing: “A Craigslist ad? Probably fake.”
I hope this is fake. I dunno, when I read it I honestly didn’t feel surprised, though; it could have been real and wouldn’t have shocked me. The gratuitous use of caps lock in the ad makes me question its authenticity, though.
This is no surprise. While Dove pretends to be about celebrating real beauty in their ads here in North America, the ads running in other parts of the world chastise women if their skin is dark, trying to sell their skin bleach with promises of finally landing a man with their whiter skin. Dove sucks donkey nards.
You are putting forth a ridiculous assumption. You assume that all people who have dark skin want to be white.
It should logically follow that all people who have light skin want to be dark.
I am basing this on the HUGE tanning salon industry.
Don’t try to shame people for what their image is of how they look best. It may not be your idea of beauty, but I don’t hear anyone asking you, either.
To assume that these people (primarily of Middle Eastern and Indian descent – if I go by the commercials that I have seen) are being forced or brainwashed is to assume that they’re stupid.
That’s ignorant and short sighted.
These products are huge in that area, and it isn’t just Dove marketing to them – there are many, many skin lightening products for sale in that area. You can bet that there are quite a few companies wanting a slice of the market.
I may think they are silly, that they are beautiful as they are. Then again, I feel that way about the people who spend a huge amount of money on tanning salons, tanning lotion and self tanners.
Oh-ho!
Zing!
Also, true.
Dove is meeting a market that already exists in a given area. It would be a bit cocky of us Westerners to assume that the lightening of skin is marketers trying to tell women of a darker skin tone that they need to be ethnically white to be beautiful, but that isn’t necessarily the case. People wanted to have lighter skin long before Dove showed up on the scene, and it isn’t necessarily linked to being ethnically white. Paler skin was historically seen as a sign of nobility- peasants would be tanned from working outside all day, and so the luxury of not having to work would be reflected in lighter skin tones. This has now flipped, and many women desire tanned skin as symbol of having the luxury of free time in which one can sun themselves.
I’m not suggesting that this is the only reason women want to have lighter skin, but it is one outside of the idea that Dove is ruining other cultures by telling them they need to be white.
If we’re going to start attacking companies for the ideologies reflected in their products, then the entire beauty industry would crumble. Which may not be a bad thing, but it is certainly complicates the issue beyond pointing to Dove as an evil-doer out to Caucasianize the world.
If one wants to get technical,the new tax on tanning salons is racist,its not fair to tax us white folk when the darker Americans need not have to apply such tax.
All white people are not pale. There are plenty of white people who don’t need to tan. And i now pale black people who could actually tan if they wanted. You are making a genralization that is not true. There are taxes on cigarrettes but everyone doesn’t smoke. But i do think if the tax money is going to something everyone in that particulat community, state, etc is going to use or benefit from then they should all have to contribute the tax money for it.
Denise, Joey is our residential conservative male. His comment was meant to point out how these types of taxes work (which is pretty much what you explained) and was tongue in cheek.
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