Of course everyone wants to support a healthy lifestyle, but I can't help but question the real motivations behind this campaign. I think they're just trying to prey on the insecurities of their female consumers. Unilever owns Dove, but they also own the company that makes Axe body spray. If anyone here has ever seen a TV ad for Axe body spray it hardly promotes the "real beauty" ideal that Dove has been plastering all over billboards and in print. Axe commercials clearly take advantage of the fact that guys love to see Victoria's Secret style models in their underwear. I mean the initial appeal of Axe body spray was/is based on the joke that it attracts insanely hot women. So basically what I'm saying is Dove is only supporting this image so long as it is convenient for them and gets people behind their product. Anyone can buy soap and smell good, you don't need to be model-like or "fake" in order to do that. However, if they were advertising something that was less easily attainable than soft skin and smelling clean, I doubt they would be using these "real" women in their ads. If they really wanted to get behind this message, they would use it with all their products, and not just where it makes for good marketing. And as a person that doesn't have the body type of these Dove women, I get offended at the implication that I'm somehow less "real" than the next person or my lifestyle is somehow unhealthy. Yes, of course this is what a lot of women tend to look like (actually these Dove women look a lot better than average), I don't know anyone so disconnected from the world that doesn't know that. I remember I saw a commercial for cellulite lotion and the woman they used was probably 21 and didn't even have cellulite, can't remember if it was from Dove or Unilever though. It wouldn't surprise me though, but I don't think it was a product marketed under the umbrella of the real women campaign. It was probably working the "fake" unattainable women angle that they use with their other products.
