REDEFINING
BEAUTY
AXE
Authenticity Questioned
Dove’s critics were quick to point
out that the brand’s owner, Unilever, was the parent company of
Slimfast, Axe and Fair & Lovely
skin-whitening cream. How could a
message about “real beauty” coming from a corporation that sells
diet products and advertises men’s
body spray with sexist tropes about
women possibly be authentic?
According to Jean Kilbourne,
creator of the Killing Us Softly
documentary series which explores how women are portrayed
in advertising, these objections
are important — but the anger toward Dove is misdirected.
“I think that’s a good reason
to go after Unilever, or to go af-
HUFFINGTON
02.09.14
ter Axe,” she told The Huffington
Post. “But I actually don’t think
the people at Dove have much
control over that.”
A second criticism sometimes
leveled at Dove is that its cosmetic products feed into women’s
insecurities.
“For the most part, I think
that Dove’s products are innocuous,” Kilbourne told HuffPost.
“It’s soap and body wash. I do
have an issue with products like
cellulite-firming cream [which
Dove sells] — it’s just one more
way to create anxiety for women.
But it’s not like they’re selling
feminine hygiene sprays.”
Jennifer Pozner, executive director of Women In Media & News and
author of Reality Bites Back: The
Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV, believes that Dove’s mes-
An ad by
the sexily
marketed
Axe, which
is owned by
Unilever —
also Dove’s
parent
company.