Dove - Onslaught

The ad above is the second film produced by ad agency Ogilvy & Mather out of Toronto for the Dove company. Their first ad was Evolution which most everyone with even the slightest addiction to YouTube has seen.

Bob Garfield an ad critic at Advertising Age has an interesting write up on the 'Onslaught' ad (read here). In the first part of the review he states that the 'Onslaught' video should win an Oscar. It's perfectly lives up to it's title (which I agree). But then he brings up the hypocrisy of the creators of the ad. Apparently Ogilvy is the U.S. agency for Barbie, Slim Fast, and AXE Body Spray (which are some of the most sexist and sexual ads you will ever see). Check out this video to see the visual extent of the hypocrisy?

But does the hypocrisy matter to you? Like Bob, I choose to believe that all those involved with the Dove ads are sincere in their motivations. But is the ad's power diminished for you because it was developed by a company that participates in some of the same things it's railing against?

Being honest, the 'Onslaught' ad just hurt my heart, and not just for little girls, but for boys too. Conceptually I understand how bombarded our kids are with this stuff, but presented like this I get the overwhelming nature of the problem on a very visceral level. For me the fact that an ad for AXE Body Spray and the Dove Ad comes from the same company doesn't diminish the truth of 'Onslaught'. If anything I admire the company even more for making an ad in which it impugns it's own work and speaks, with some authority, about the danger of this kind of marketing. I guess what I am saying is that I don't need someone to be perfect in order to illuminate truth. Truth still stands and the truth in 'Onslaught' is exactly what the title says. Our children can and will have their identity shaped and molded by the onslaught of the beauty culture, and left unchecked by parents and adults who know better, the consequences can disastrous.