1F25 blog entry 3: What the Hail?

When you walk through the aisles of any pharmacy, what helps you decide what shampoo or soap to purchase? Is it the packaging? Is it the name? I believe it is something more. Would you buy one specific brand over another, if it weren’t for their advertising tactics.

After realizing this, I thought about the products I find in my shower. Dove. The commercials you see for Dove, include women of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities. The specific advertisement I chose to analyze is one of a fair-skinned, freckle-faced women. Beside her, two ‘check-here’ boxes, one reading “flawed?” and the other “flawless?”, followed by a caption reading “Is beautiful skin only ever spotless? Join the beauty debate.”

“Gender is central to identity, and gender socialization is one of the earliest processes of interpellation.” (pp. 185) Dove uses this to their advantage. Women nowadays are not use to being told they are beautiful by advertising. Typically, an ad would show a skinny woman, with airbrushed skin, promoting products - rather than a typical ‘everyday’ woman. This is an advertising strategy that catches my attention.

pp. 185 - Where Are Discourses and Ideologies Found?, Chapter 12, O’Shagnhessy


If all company's used this strategy, I feel it would be less effective for Dove. Since this goes against the ‘norms’ of advertising, yet stays within the restrictions of normal life, it is safe yet shocking, without being controversial. For this reason, it attracted my attention. A woman I can relate to makes me want to use the product, not a woman who portrays fake beauty. “[Advertising] causes us to question ourselves. What this suggests is that our personality, our individual identity, and our subjectivity have been produced by a number of external factors.” (pp. 184) 

pp. 184 - Where Are Discourses and Ideologies Found?, Chapter 12, O’Shagnhessy


Fortunately, after analyzing and realizing that this and other tactics companies use to capture the attention of potential consumers, I am still proud to say I use Dove products. Unlike many other companies, they use advertisements to boost the self-esteem of women everywhere. This is a company who uses their advertising to benefit their customers, as well as their own company. After reading this, would you still stand behind the products you use?