For years now, the marketing team over at Dove has been working to make their brand’s name synonymous with body positivity.
The company’s latest campaign, released in the U.K., tries to address body image issues with … a more diverse range of bottle shapes? Seriously. Um.
Body positivity and body diversity are serious issues, but the premise behind this campaign is majorly silly, and people wasted no time making jokes at the brand’s expense.
Yes, bodies do come in all shapes and sizes, and that’s a good thing! Yes, social beauty standards are harmful! But no, adding an additional six bottle shapes to your lineup doesn’t really have anything to do with how people actually feel about their bodies. In fact, the whole thing sounds like a bit from a “30 Rock” episode.
Author Mara Wilson compared headlines championing the body wash to something more suited for the satirical feminist site Reductress.
Hey @Reductress you know I love you but I feel like you should have workshopped this one a bit more pic.twitter.com/BnDLMPEriG
Mara Wilson (@MaraWilson) May 8, 2017
Journalist Rachel Handler poked fun at the bottles’ wild disregard for anatomical correctness. (No, this is not a request to make anatomically correct human-plastic bottle hybrids. Please don’t.)
.@dove I have arms please advise https://t.co/AycSUjLi0v
rachel handler (@rachel_handler) May 8, 2017
And Cosmopolitan’s Carina Hsieh provided everyone with enough nightmare fuel to last into the foreseeable future.
thanks dove but i already found a bottle for my shape pic.twitter.com/asuo1vci0O
Carina Hsieh (@carinahsieh) May 8, 2017
There’s a real question to be asked about what role brands should (or can) play in building social awareness.
On one hand, brands have a giant platform and can help promote positive messages (see Budweiser’s pro-immigration Super Bowl ad or Heineken’s recent ad about bridging political divides); on the other, sometimes it just comes off as a craven money grab (see Pepsi). That’s the tricky thing about businesses wading into the social-political world: At their core, they’re still businesses, and their primary goal will always be to try to make money or sell a product.
Many people have written about the limits of “woke capitalism,” and it’s definitely a topic on which reasonable people can and do disagree.
Women: please stop objectifying women
Dove: we are proud to announce our campaign to womanify objectsZooey Bchamel (@rachlack) May 8, 2017
Dove: HEY WOMEN MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER YOU HAVE A FAT ASS WHEN YOU SHOWER BUY OUR FAT ASS BOTTLE TO REMIND YOU.
Women: Wait WTF? https://t.co/LX3q4qLZbSPetra Starke (@petstarr) May 9, 2017
DOVE SOLVED BODY SHAMING GUYS!!!!!!! IT’S OVER1!1!1!1 https://t.co/UsDIAofYG3
rae paoletta (@PAYOLETTER) May 8, 2017
There are a lot of great resources on the internet about body positivity and fat acceptance (which you can check out here, here, and here).
Maybe the Dove ad wouldn’t have been so bad if it had just made a little more sense.
Nylon magazine’s Angela Lashbrook sums the whole thing up pretty well.
How does the shape of a soap bottle make me feel better about my body, i’m not… making the connection
Angela Lashbrook (@lemonsand) May 8, 2017
There is one thing Dove (and other companies) can do to promote body positivity, and it’s super easy.
Dove need to do one thing to promote body positivity: fill their ads with women who aren’t models and make it no big deal. That’s it.
Josie George (@porridgebrain) May 9, 2017
Or just let women keep their clothes on for once and assume we all know what skin and skincare is.
Josie George (@porridgebrain) May 9, 2017
At other times, Dove has been praised for featuring real women who aren’t models in their ads. But really, wouldn’t it be great if every brand did that every day?