Dove, Real Beauty campaign?

So,


I just got this email from the "Campaign for a commercial free childhood." Which seems like a funny thing to talk about on a blog, but I'm going to link to it here...

http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org//

You'll want to check it out if you find the following article interesting(reprinted from an email they sent me).


"Last week, as part of its much lauded Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, Unilever released "Onslaught", a video that examines disturbing images of women in beauty-industry advertising before ending with the message, "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does."

It's an important message, and the campaign has received many accolades for challenging the standards of the beauty industry. But there's one big problem: Unilever is the beauty industry. When it comes to promoting sexualized stereotypes and marketing an unhealthy body image in order to sell girls on the idea that they need products to improve the way they look, Unilever - the world's second biggest advertiser and manufacturer of diet aids, cosmetics, skin whiteners, and other beauty products - is a major offender.

Unilever also makes Axe, a brand of male grooming products whose marketing promotes the objectification and sexual humiliation of women (see, for example, http://www.theaxeeffect.com/axevixens.html). Even as Unilever is celebrated for its Dove campaign, it markets Axe to boys on the Internet, through advertising in magazines with large youth readership such as Maxim, and on MTV where its sexist and degrading ads are seen by girls and boys of all ages. On MySpace and other Internet sites, Axe is promoted by an all female singing group, the Bom Chicka Wah Wahs, whose suggestive theme song and video is all about how the smell of Axe makes women lose control sexually (sample lyric: "If you have that aroma on, you can have our whole band").

"Real Beauty" from Unilever's Axe

Please take a moment to tell Unilever that its time to ax the Axe campaign.

Unilever marketers claim that the Real Beauty campaign is designed to promote girls' self-esteem "and help free ourselves and the next generation from beauty stereotypes." If they're serious about this goal, they'll begin by looking in the mirror and end their degrading Axe campaign.

Tell Unilever: "Bom Chicka Wah Wah" is not "Real Beauty."

Thanks,

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
http://commercialfreechildhood.org/ "