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AXE VS DOVE Against Unilever

 

Posted on December 10, 2007
Elise Madoz

 

The campaign “Evolution" by Dove is still fresh on our minds: a huge viral success with over 12 million views of the video on YouTube.


Dove, riding on this success, has launched a second video called “Onslaught”, the message of which is “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does”:


Since its very publication online this spot has been hugely criticised. Its opponents denounce the hypocrisy and insincerity of Unilever group which also owns the brand Axe.

Indeed, with its brand Dove Unilever preaches self-esteem, whereas in the spots for its brand Axe women are reduced to mere sex objects.

Needless to say that we did not have to wait long for a parody of “Onslaught”.

In this fake spot, produced by an advertiser, the Unilever paradox is nicely shown to its whole extent, as the images of women, modified for magazines and publicity and strongly criticised by Dove, have here been replaced by scenes from Axe advertising spots…


To conclude, in the end you can read the following sentence: “Talk to you daughter before Unilever does.”

Unilever has reacted to these accusations by declaring that the two brands Axe and Dove each represent their own values and that thus their communication is very different.

Sharon McLoad, Dove brand director, stated that the Axe adverts were humorous and that women were well aware of that. Well…

Paradoxes in communication or not, what one should not forget is that we are talking about advertising campaigns here… and their sole objective is to increase product sales.


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1. Wednesday 12 December 2007 attime 22:43, by Jeremy Basset :: AXE VS DOVE against Unilever

I say vote with your money. If you like what Dove is doing with Women/self-esteem, then support it. Our purchases go into supporting additional advertising for that campaign/other similar campaigns. If you don’t like the messages which Axe is putting on the market, then don’t support their products and boycott the brand. At the end of the day, companies communicate (i.e. advertise) in a way which is most effective (i.e. drives sales) - if you support Dove, then you show

2. Tuesday 24 February 2009 attime 14:46, by Hidayat :: Brand hypocrisy

To claim that the two brands Axe and Dove each represent their own values is dishonest in the extreme. Not only were the "opposing" ad campaigns discussed & planned internally first, but the . Moreover, they produced Axe ads knowing they would be banned for sexist content, so that they could have then be circulated on YouTube with the tag: "banned ads".

Further brand hypocrisy by Unilever is revealed by Lipton tea products being certified as having been produced through a sustainable supply chain. In fact, in countries like Pakistan Lipton tea is produced through a system of "disposable jobs" - casual workers on poverty wages.

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