I’m all for Dove’s campaign for real beauty and the real women they use in their ads as self-esteem builders. But the “Are You Sleeveless Ready?” campaign that says their deodorant will make your armpits prettier is just bizarre.
File it under who gives a fu*k about armpits. Kids are getting blown up in Iraq every day. Our president is intellectually challenged. Children are starving. Jeez!
Dove, you need to get a grip.
If Dove’s armpit advice was presented with even an inkling of a sense of humor, like, say Remington’s celebration of pubic beauty, or Phillips’ Bodygroom Shave Everywhere, that would be a different story. But this is presented as an issue of genuine concern. The only thing missing is the armpit hair blog and the armpit shaving YouTube video. Lame, lame, lame.
So much of advertising and marketing takes itself so deadly seriously. Haven’t agencies noticed yet that people are ignoring the vast majority of their campaigns?
Or am I just grumpy?
I vote for grumpy.
I have no idea whatsoever, but in my relationships with women – personally and professionally – I’ve always been amazed about the physical things they might obsess over. And yes, this goes for many men as well. Maybe there’s an audience out there for this – I dunno. Just because you don’t care about armpits doesn’t mean nobody should.
And before you compare the importance of any ad to war or world hunger, take a deep breath. They are on different planets and NO ad matters compared to those things, bad ad or not.
You’re grumpy.
I agree with Spike. I know many women who are concerned about the appearance of their underarms especially since warm weather is upon us now.
And yes, you need to separate beauty marketing from your political views.
Definitely grumpy. (Use of asterisked out profanity makes that abundantly clear.)
Grumpy.
It’s not that you don’t have valid reasons—Bush, Iraq and poverty are excellent reasons to be grumpy—it’s just that your ire is misdirected.
I have no desire to jump on the dogpile.
Whether or not you are grumpy, I’m not sure I understand the decision to run the campaign, either.
It’s highly probable, however, that I’m not the intended audience.
Whether or not you’re being grumpy, I think there’s an audience for this campaign — underarms do matter. I remember seeing Dove TV spots last year about “turning your armpits into underarms in 5 days”. Yes, curing cancer, ending poverty, etc. are more important… but I don’t think that’s going to become the gauge for deciding what to talk about in TV ads.
Must be something in the air…yesterday, I went off over Dunkin Donuts new site…http://www.myicedcoffee.com.
After all, whenever I need an iced coffee, I log on and hit Google (tho that URL doesn’t show up on the first 3 pages of the search).
The things some people focus on!?!
Unlike Cam, I’m guessing I am the target audience… being:
1. female
and
2. having armpits
and
3. caring about shaving them
I do agree that some women care a lot about this issue. And I do happen to be one of them.
That being said, I gotta agree with BL on her observation that it’s the humorless-ness of the site that is a total turnoff. Do I really need to take a “Quiz” on armpit shaving?!
It’s just silly. But not fun-silly. It’s embarrassing-silly.
I agree about the quiz. That’s kind of dumb. I do think that a lot of women prefer their armpits to be flake-free in any sleeveless situation. Nothing can ruin a nice outfit like weird white flakes or streaks.
Ann, you got it exactly right.
I have to say that reading these responses definitely gave me a good giggle since a bunch of people were taking armpits so seriously.
You want to sell me something — particularly about a part of the body that is ticklish — then I would appreciate a light touch, preferably one that evokes some cheerful emotion.
When you look at the way Remington and Phillips handled similar subjects you can never convince me that a serious take on armpits is a valid marketing approach.
I’m into fashion, and I like my armpits to be as pretty as the rest of me. But puh-lese Dove, lighten up.
The Dove campaign, albeit a bit vapid, is brilliant.
One of the most effective ways to sell a product or service is insecurity. Play on the prospect’s insecurities and 99% of the sale is made.
We as women are insecure, let’s face it. We’re constantly worrying about facial lines we don’t need, fat pockets we could live without, etc. Case in point, a new product, Juvaderm. It’s a injected line filler only available from your local dermatologist, kind of the same ilk as collagen for the lips and Botox for the face. This product supposed pumps up “parenthesis lines,” the lines that run from both sides of the nose to both sides of the mouth. As a 46 year old woman, who lost 200lbs (and kept almost all of it off for the last three years), I’ve noticed the “parentheses” on my face the last couple of years and didn’t think much of it–me just getting skinnier, older, wiser and better!
Now there’s a “solution” to my “problem.” With a national rollout, millions of dollars invested in advertising this product, I say to myself, “Gee this “parenthesis” problem must be pose a real dilemma and there must be millions of women chomping at at the bit to have this problem solved. Why else would a pharma spend upwards of billions on this. Surely this must be a bigger problem than cancer, diabetes or AIDS.
And why do they do it? Because insecurity sells products.
I do think you may be overreacting just a touch but your point is valid. Armpits certainly aren’t the most important thing in the world, not even close. However, every woman, and man for that matter, has their own little quirks and concerns. Someone’s could very will be armpits.
I definitely think you have a point about underarms being far less important than the war, but there is definitely an audience for this product. The Web site didn’t seem too “serious” to me. It was interactive and gave the audience a great idea of what the product is and how well it works. To me, it just seemed like good advertising. Try looking at it from an advertiser’s point-of-view. Maybe it won’t seem so terrible then.
I definitely think you have a point about underarms being far less important than the war, but there is definitely an audience for this product. The Web site didn’t seem too “serious” to me. Instead, it was very interactive and gave a great idea of what the product is and how well it works. To me, it just seemed like good advertising. Try looking at it from an advertiser’s point-of-view. Maybe it won’t seem so terrible then.
I’m not so sure that children in Iraq and our president are comparable to Dove’s campaign for its new deodorant; however, I do think that the campaign is a bit exaggerated and is trying to make an armpit deodorant new and interesting, when in reality it is just an awkward subject in itself. Prettier armpits? Maybe not. But better smelling armpits for the self-conscious? Perhaps. I think the advertisers need to figure out what their key messages are, and really communicate it to their target audience. There just may be someone who is in need of great, new deodorant right now, and that is the audience that the campaign is going to reach.
Obviously, the Dove armpit campaign is a silly idea, because frankly, most of us have more important things to worry about than armpits. I’ve never thought about my armpits. But like any woman, I have insecurities. If someone implies that you should think about your armpits, don’t you? I certainly did. In addition to the standard confidence crushers “I’m fat” and “I’m ugly,” listen for a new one: “I hate my armpits.” At least now we’re being particular!
“File it under who gives a fu*k about armpits. Kids are getting blown up in Iraq every day. Our president is intellectually challenged. Children are starving.”
The same judgement could be directed against anything, though. Theres no reason that any humane individual should be caring about thier appearence (beyond a neccessery hygenic level) or complaining about other’s amount of caring when there is this much totally preventable tragedy. However, to say it applies when Dove’s marketing campaign hits a bit flat risks trivialising this situation, as in the case of: ‘How can Dove be thinking like this, THOUGH if thier campaign were a little funnier it would be o.k….”
The point of my post again – >>”If Dove’s armpit advice was presented with even an inkling of a sense of humor, like, say Remington’s celebration of pubic beauty, or Phillips’ Bodygroom Shave Everywhere, that would be a different story. But this is presented as an issue of genuine concern.”>>
The missing ingredient is the sense of humor. they have none. they present armpit bumps as if they were of great import, which they are not, despite what advertisers would like to think.
As for looking at it from an advertisers point of view — I am, but I’m looking at it as an advertiser in NEW media. Dove is an advertiser who doesn’t realize that there are better ways to sell armpit cream or whatever they were selling, than by taking the subject so seriously.
My specialty is experiential online marketing and every single campaign I do is based on the premise that people want to have fun, have a diversion — and not be hammered with a heavy-handed, clueless advertising agency, old-fashioned kind of marketing.
Grumpy.
Self-esteem is a huge issue, and although it’s not as serious as people getting killed and starving, it’s a major issues for a lot of young women. No matter if it’s armpits, weight, hair, whatever. Just like Lindsay D. said, now that Dove has mentioned that people worry about their armpits, more people are going to worry about them. And if Dove is giving a solution for you armpit worries, then more sales for them.
What you said about people being killed and starving, well we could use that for just about everything people do on a daily basis. You go shopping, don’t you? Well there are plenty of people that don’t have clothes that fit, why are you buying clothes when you could be buying them for the needy? People go to spas and salons when they could be saving that money and giving it to charity.
Just let Dove worry about the ugly armpits out there, and you can worry about the things that matter the most to you. It’s really nothing to get worked up about. That’s the problem with people, they get worked up about the smallest things that are pointless to get bothered by.
Never mind Iraq and all that, it’s utterly irrelevant. What I want to know is this – where are the fatties? All of a sudden, now that the focus is on armpits and sleeveless tops, all the gut-buckets have disappeared. OK, the girl who does the talking does have slightly wonky teeth, but the so-called “real women” in this particular TV ad are WAY skinnier than the ones in Dove’s last campaign…