outside the (toy) box

Dove’s newest viral video “film,”  Onslaught is making the rounds.  In case you haven’t seen it, it’s certainly well worth the 1 minute and 15 second time investment. Check it out here. 

But, poor Onslaught is getting shredded by the feminist blogosphere, and yesterday even some of my very, very faves like Jill over at Feministe and Two Knives… had at it — both making extremely good points.  So good that I agreed with them 90% of the time.

Yes, there is obviously some pretty disturbing inconsistency going down for unilever to celebrate women’s “real beauty” on one hand and then sell skin whitening creams and hawk cologne with those outrageously offensive Axe commercials on the other. 

And yes, they are still selling beauty products. 

And yes, they are only using these new messages for the same old reason — to make money.   Without a doubt.  This is just another attempt to reach consumers — women.

But, isn’t it a good attempt?  I mean, at the end of the day, Dove is NOT contributing to the clutter so aptly depicted in Onslaught — one less trashy ad is one less trashy add. 

Plus, there may be value added here — sure, us smart-as-whips feminist types read the Beauty Myth a decade (or two) ago and we’ve seen all three of the Killing Us Softly films, so we “get” this already.  But my mother and dept. secretary both watched it and said the same thing - “wow.”  My little sister (who is 15) will see this video and may very well talk about this nonsense with her friends for the first time (she and I don’t talk about this issue much — very touchy subject for us both, I think).  The profundity of the beauty industry and the lies it sells are still news to many people — and, alas, a 75 second visual representation of this will reach many more people  (literally, in that it will find them, and figuratively, in that it will be meaningful for them) than The Beauty Myth ever has.  So, I appreciate it for that.  If capitalism keeps the conversation alive, so be it.

Even more, the campaign for real beauty makes me want to buy Dove to make a point for Madison Avenue.  Women like this shtick, fellas.  If this kind of advertising builds brand loyalty, others will use it too. Now that wouldn’t suck.  No ma’am.

But I understand if some people bristle at the smug insincerity of it all, I just wish we would devote our energy taking aim at other companies, who are so much more disturbing.  It’s one thing not to fall for the ads, it’s another thing to call out Dove or boycott them.

I think it would be more meaningful to stop grumbling about Dove and get on Victoria’s Secret’s ass for selling with “perfection” or on Skyy Vodka’s ass for sexist BS, or any limitless number of other companies - we have bigger fish to fry.  Epic fish. Moby Dick fish.

Having said all that — I agree very much with TwoKnives on her frustration with the tag line at the end of Onslaught - “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.”  That’s just crazy.  As in mammoth cop out, completely removed from reality, crazy.

Indivdiual ”solutions”?  Did they watch their own film??? 

As if my conversations with my daughter could ever somehow protect her from the cultural catastrophe that she will be sold as she wades through this world!  How I wish it would be that simple.  I mean really, for christ’s sake I teach this crap and know it’s all fake (nicely illustrated, of course in Dove’s first “film” Evolution — another good investment of 75 seconds) and ridiculous, but I STILL can’t enjoy being in a bathing suit in the way that men do or try on jeans without feeling like it would all be so much better if I could just lose that 5 or 10 pounds.   Truly.  Knowledge has limits — if it didn’t no one would smoke of eat french fries.  (gasp. “What - these aren’t good for me?”).  I know, I say this all the time - and from within the walls of the academy, appalling.

So, I do hate the tag line.  In fact, I’d like to see if anyone wants to offer up something better. Hmm… Little girl sees all that crap, walks away with a big group of friends. How about…

“Together, I know we can change this” or maybe “Why on EARTH do people do that to themselves” or maybe some stats about the beauty industry or some info about consumer rights orgs.

I guess I shouldn’t worry about Dove though, because no matter what we’re out here saying - this film is circulating like wildfire and I didn’t have Dove on my mind yesterday.  A viral video coup if there ever was one.