Dove's Real Campaign? Money.

It's interesting that these ads have become so popular.
I appreciate the message that they are trying to portray. However it is difficult to take Dove seriously considering they are a corporate body whose only function is to sell products. Exactly what Britney and other beautiful women are used for as well. We are a consumerist society that buys what 'beauty' is shilling. Music, movies , clothes, ipods, cars etc. If it doesn't have a slick PR/Advertising campaign we don't know/care about what it is. (ex. Late night tv commercials vs. latest ipod campaign.)

Now getting back to Dove.
Dove is owned by a larger entity called Unilever. Unilever also owns Slimfast and wait for it... Axe body spray. The very same commercials that portray woman as mindless sexual predators for the skinny geek wearing this product.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT6IWAIf580
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKELbfTuygg

So the question is would Unilever change their other product portrayals to match their knew found principled advertising with Dove?
In an interview in the World Street Journal, Dove was asked the following; “It seems the use of ordinary women in your ads has sparked an ad movement. Are other Unilever brands considering using ordinary folks in their ads?” They responded, “No I think we are very keen that every brand has a point of differentiation.”

Hmmmm. Makes one feel a little jaded. The other dose of harsh reality also follows that the 'Campaign for Real Beauty Foundation' is a charity. A great tax write off...

I'd like to believe that the people in the Dove campaign really did have good intentions. Before the campaign came out, Dove had commissioned a major study that was based on 3,200 interviews with women ages 18 to 64. Two-thirds of the respondents answered that the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women felt they could never achieve. The survey also found that no women described themselves as gorgeous, 1% said they were stunning and only 2% thought they're beautiful. As for the others, about three-quarters rate their beauty as average. Meanwhile, nearly half the women globally and 60% of U.S. women said their weight was "too high."

So what was Dove doing? They realized that tapping into our insecurities and building them up meant products sold. A good feeling associated with their product... all to familiar advert scenario.

So what has todays pop culture taught us about 'beauty'? It is a commodity bought and sold. Smoke and mirrors to get us to buy.

The real question is, where do we go to find what beauty is to us outside of all of this nonsense?

How do we teach youth they are more than what they wear or buy?
A heck of a difficult job considering they are the key demographic for companies since they have the most disposable income.

How do you teach outer beauty with out tapping into the idea that you need to have stuff to make you cool/desirable?

Who are you with out your music/clothes/movies to dictate who you are? (I call it the disease of group individualism. You have to advertise(identify) who you are by what you are into.)

Would teaching counter culture lifestyles appeal to youth? Or would you have to come up with a slick campaign to make it seem cool? (Don't we do that in our Christian sub culture? oh Aquire the Fire...)