ok, i GET it. DOVE has online viral campaign. Ok! Yes, it sucks to be a woman. Maybe if we quit having to watch tv commercials and magazine ads put out by YOUR COMPANY.. people would be less image conscious. Talk about Orwellian. A corporation that sells makeup and beauty products trying to pretend it's evil advertising's fault.

Unilever’s famous brands include Dove, Knorr, Lipton, Magnum, Omo, Cif, Slim-Fast, Iglo, Birds Eye, Becel, Blue Band, Unox, Calve, Conimex and Lever2000.

I know JoeDirt it's fucking horrible. But this is what being a successful corporation entails these days, effective reach out programs towards the community and in end the consumer. In our world of international competition, globalization and economies of scale this is what has become necessary. This is of course where the PR image managers come in.

Dove however is harmless to the biggest perpertators I believe for example Phillip Morris USA and it's Smoking and Health Issues. Phillip Morris hired image consultants to amke themselves seem better, even though they are selling cancer sticks. Or my personal favourite companies that us viral targetted advertising, toy manufacturers, they actually did studies on how to effectively sell toys to small children, especially through the use of nagging, basically the ad would allude to nagging within the ad (say kid nags parent for toy and gets it in the ad), the same effect will get transplanted into the household, small kids at that stage learn by copying, so they copy the behaviour of the kid within the advert and nag their parents.

Seriously, watch Saturday Mornining Cartoons. It's all there.

I kinda understand where Phillip Morris is coming from. I mean they know, and you know.. and everyone is on the same page on smoking being horrible, and they have pretend campaigns.

But I mean Exxon overloaded ad campaign saying they are making a greener planet. Now Dove is making girls LESS self conscious. Anyways, they sell BETTY CROCKER plastic playsets for toddlers. Corporations figured out brand recognition takes places at very young ages and are implanting the packaging colors into their brains. Think toddler product placement.

Jeez you guys are cynical bastards. It's really hypocritical to be bashing a company for *trying* to have a positive marketing campaign while remaining silent on the thousands of other companies crassly trying to convince us we're imperfect without their product. Who cares if they're only doing it for PR -- it's better than nothing isn't it? Would you have the United Way give back the billions they collect in corporate capaigning just because the companies donated to help build a good corporate image?

So if Hitler started a Jewish Foundation and community center.. it would be cool, cause unlike hundred of other Europeans, he was doing something positive..

It's ok for whitewashing corporations to pretend to be doing a small good and ignore the greater damage to environment/culture/local economy/local wages/global warming/political corruption/etc


[ED: Note at no point is Hitler compared to any companies.. rather the point is made that for an evil person to put forward a token gesture is still evil]

Yeah Coupland, but that's placing trust in a corporation (which legally is not even liable for any damages). I don't know if you know a particular car called the Ford Pinto. Apparently, Ford has not forgotten the lawsuits and the public relations disasters forged by its Pinto hatchback and sedan. The Pinto's famous safety flaw, of course, was that it was prone to blowing up if rear-ended. When people talk about how bad American small cars created an opportunity for the Japanese to come in and clean house in the 1970s and '80s, they are referring to vehicles like this.

I still like the clip above, it's very touching and beautifully shot, just corporate sponsorship leaves an acid taste.

I was prepared to downvote this on principle of being viral if it was a poor vid. But IMHO, it's good.

Okay joedirt, I <3 almost every post I've ever seen from you. . . comparing Dove to Hitler though? You so lost some points from me there. I see where you're coming from, but: bad nacho, no buscuit.
Life is about perspective. And if someone is gathering theirs from a commercial on TV or from "social norm," then as cynical as it sounds, "screw em."

Hmm, I like this Dove ~= Hitler comparison. I think this warrants a google search.

Hmm - a lot of people who talk about this ad campaign invoke Hitler. Rarely together though.

joedirt's one of a kind.

umm.. the company that destroyed the goodwill of Ben & Jerry! I mean they set up a special Vermont owned kinda thing. Formerly, the CEO's salary was pegged to eight times to lowest paid employee. Unilever destroyed that company. I won't even teabag a pint of B&J anymore. Unilever in fact sucks. And greenwash is a new term for this site.

Then again, didn't the B&J guys suffer health problems from their own product? Not that anyone asked me, but I'm not sufficiently outraged to boycott anything just because it's associated with Unilever but will consider things on a case-by-case basis.

I'm more of a fan of gelato, anyway...

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