Our show and tell consists of one inspiring Dove ad about natural beauty. We picked this ad because we know how it is to “hide without makeup”. The makeup industry today is all about making girls feel bad about themselves or feel like they need to look a certain way to be beautiful. This is an increasingly scary problem because the models in ads are all photoshopped to be more skinny and angular. Girls starve themselves to look like fake, posterized humans. What’s sad is that young girls today can not see past all the ads and fake models and continue to think that there is something wrong with themselves. Dove see’s these alarming issues and is now targeting a different kind of audience: The average female.
The Dove Camera Shy ad uses multiple women that all are scared of the camera because they do not have makeup on. Does a woman really need makeup to be beautiful though? Why can she not just be beautiful because that is the way she was born? Dove commercials have gone past the point of just wanting to sell their products, but has designed a new goal to change the way women in the US see themselves. Not to say that Dove has entirely selfless motives however, but their goal is a truly amiable act. That women even need to be told they’re beautiful without makeup though, is a depressing sentiment.

By creating lines of ads that address this issue, Dove has become ever the more popular. Women are drawn to the idea of owning a product that enhances their natural beauty. The reverse play on aesthetics is remarkably effective as well. When a woman has her soaps and body washes on display in her bathroom, she wants her guests to notice what she uses. Dove, in this sense, has become a status symbol of natural beauty. These women want others to think they do not need fancy, expensive products to make them attractive. All they need is Dove.
This ad greatly relates to our course discussions about ads playing on the insecurities of their audience to make them “need” the product to be happy or to make others happy. Dove commercials are feel good commercials but, they still make their audiences think about how they are seen. Dove advertises body wash and deodorant to a specific crowd feeling bad about a certain part of themselves. Whether that be body odor or even just having bad skin, Dove advertises that their products will give natural beauty to their consumers. However, Dove does so in a more sneaky way. Dove addresses that a beautiful woman does not need the expensive soaps to have beautiful skin. Why not have a cheap, wonderful smelling body wash that enhances the natural attractiveness of their skin? Dove makes their customers feel bad about not having natural beauty and makes their commercials seem like they are protecting the average woman. While the ads are ‘feel good” commercials, they still effectively find their target audience.
Dove does do many good things for women though. Dove’s ads are very user friendly and “feel good” in nature. Also very light hearted and motivational. In a sense, Dove commercials are opposite of Axe and Old Spice because they do not try to sell by making their audiences feel like they need their products to be attractive or accepted in society. In fact, Dove ads make women feel good about themselves where as Axe is all about sex and making young adolescents think differently about women. Dove ads are actually very motivational and help women see that life is not about wearing the latest clothes or looking very skinny; Dove ads are about finding your inner beauty and loving yourself. Every woman today should have a chance to feel beautiful and attractive. Every woman should have a chance to be happy about who they are.
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