All you need is Dove.

Aka, Dove doesn’t get it, or Dove’s campaign for unreal beauty. Highjive has a look at this latest work/effort that sums it up for me. ‘Whatever’ is right. I can only add here that brands’ attempts at ‘branded content’ will only kick ass when, um, they kick ass. Make it cool, then I’m on board with whatever cause you wanna throw my way. What’s the difference in this ‘microseries’ compared to Ford’s Roommates effort? Not much. Reaching out to dispell notions of real vs. fake beauty was supposedly the intent of the original campaign, but as this thing rolls along, it’s clear it’s gotten further away from that station.

The message of real is undermined by the use of a celebrity in these Sex in the OC-type scripts, not to mention multiple brand tie-ins with MTV and MSN. Seriously, I have no problem using large channels like that to get the word out, but MTV? Where, unless you’re a 10, you ain’t gettin on any of their shows. Way to keep it real Dove.

And before the brand or agency people say that ad bloggers are out of touch, hmm, well, whatever. Your demo, (my daughter in college heading into this Perfect Storm called advertising), thinks the message rings false too. As does the girl Riot, who sums it up better than I did:

“...you can't campaign for real beauty unless you actually embrace it.”

But hey, Dove gets mentioned here and that’s all that counts, right?

Tags: Dove