Dove, Not Scum.

For my project I have chosen to do a close analysis of a commercial which very recently began airing from the Dove Corporation. In recent years the Dove corporation has been airing commercials that feature “everyday woman”, not fashion models, in an attempt to appeal to the average female consumer. They have titled this grouping of ads as a “campaign for real beauty”. The ad that I’ve chosen to analyze is promoting Dove bar soap but doesn’t specify any particular fragrance or other features. Rather than being an ad for a particular product, the advertisement seeks to promote Dove soap in general as superior to all other types of soap. In this ad “two” woman are asked to shower, one with “soap” and one with “Dove”. The ad then shows the different amounts of soap scum left on the woman’s bodies after they have dried off from their showers. Through several techniques, including the use of attractive but average looking models, “clean looking backgrounds and texts in conjunction with their product and most notably product comparisons, the ad successfully taps into it’s target audience, the everyday woman and creates the very feminine desire to be clean.
The ad that I’ve chosen, which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfojlBdOaH8&NR=1 , is an ad for the Dove corporation. This ad seeks to appeal to average woman and plays upon the average female’s desire and need to be clean. The commercial opens by placing light blue text on a clean white background that states “is your soap leaving scum on your skin?”. Immediately the ad has grabbed the attention of it’s female viewer through language like “your skin” and adverse words like “scum”. Also, this opening text features the Dove logo, a small white dove, an easily recognizable trademark that most females would recognize and therefore pay attention to. Next, the viewer is shown two woman showering, one with a Dove bar of soap and the other with an unnamed bar of soap. Notably, the Dove bar is always referred to as “Dove” and the second bar is always referred to as “soap”, insinuating that Dove isn’t soap at all, but something much better. After the woman finish with their showers, we are shown the two females standing next to each other and the female voiceover tells us that “if you could see the difference, you’d see that soap actually leaves an invisible layer of scum on your skin”. While the voiceover speaks, the woman look as if someone has turned a black light on them and we are shown the woman who washed with soap with white spots all over her skin. These spots, are meant to represent soap scum, but it is clearly stated at the bottom of the screen that this is an “artist’s dramatization” of the scum. The woman who washed with Dove doesn’t have any spots on her skin, obviously the desirable outcome. Throughout the entire ad, the woman who uses Dove, even before the shower is shown to be smiling and happy while the woman that uses soap appears rather somber, insinuating that the Dove brand will make it’s users happy because they are cleaner. Cleanliness is the main theme of the ad, and the Dove corporation achieves this in several ways, such as their use of clean white background shown behind the Dove woman and a dull gray background behind the woman using soap. Also, to create the idea that Dove is “cleaner” and perhaps more “pure” that regular soap, we are shown a view of what appears to be cream pouring down the screen into the shape of a Dove bar of soap, appealing to a female’s desire for “natural beauty”, the theme of their corporation’s recent campaign. . One of the more interesting aspects of this commercial for me is the fact that throughout the ad we are told that we are watching two different woman, when in fact these are the same woman. By using one woman to represent two, the company is implying that all woman are the same, and have the same desire to be clean. On a similar note, the ads uses a female that is attractive but not a typical supermodel type. The woman appears to look like an average woman, appealing to the average female the ad targets. The viewers of this ad are able to identify with the “women” and therefore her desire for clean skin lacking “scum” become their own desire. One of the most effective ways this ad creates a desire for the Dove brand of cleanliness is through product comparison. By comparing Dove to “soap”, the ad implies that all other types of soap are inferior to Dove and that unless you use Dove, you will end up with soap scum on your skin, something already established as undesirable. In an ad for Bounty paper towels, a similar tactic is used. While the ads are very different, the Bounty ad uses humor and men to sell their product, both ads rely on product comparison. In this ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPSJvkdbUGY , Bounty paper towels are not being compared to a particular type of other paper towel, but other paper towels in general. The bounty towel picks up the mess and continues to work while the “other” towel simply falls apart.
The word “scum” is undesirable, the word “clean” is desirable for all people, but even more so for the average American female. Through advertisements and other form of media, as women we are told that we are to be kept clean and smell nice, this ad appeals to these ideals. When I first saw this particular Dove ad on TV, immediately after it aired I said to myself “wow, that commercial is going to sell a lot of soap”. Of course the Dove brand would have preferred for me to say “sell a lot of Dove”, but close enough right? The reason I assumed the ad would sell so much of it’s product was because of the many different tactics used. From the choice of model, to the use of “clean” backgrounds, to the product comparison and the artist’s rather imposing dramatization of the soap scum, the ad appeals to woman on a very visual level.