Since the week where we learned about Dove’s campaign for Real Beauty I’ve found myself paying more attention to ads that define consumers. And it amazes me that so many of our traditional definitions of how to act and be can be found in campaigns. The idea of “‘Young, white, blonde and thin’ were the almost universal characteristics of woman portrayed in advertising and packaging” according to Dove: Evolution of a Brand (Deighton, 2008). Commercials for men use what are probably the male equivalent, chiseled, dark, and lean. Calvin Klein tells us how to look, then Dove tells us how to act. The men in the Dove commercials have the same type look as those in the CK ones, too.
Take a look and ask if this is the average guy you see walking around? Calvin Klein is the easy one to find and this is the ad from this year’s Super Bowl.
Dove defined guys while it was promoting “Real Beauty” for women a few years ago.
Dove then followed it up with a man’s face and its wear.
I find it interesting that so much of our roles and behaviors in society are defined by marketing and television, things that are known to be creative industries. And it has me wondering what’s next (maybe that Apple watch Paul blogged about) or even if I land at the right agency and at the right time can I create a new definition of how a guy should act? How far can we push things?
Deighton, J. (2008). Dove: Evolution of a brand. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.
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