https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk
So, by now, you’ve all seen the Dove Beauty Sketches commercial that has been making its rounds all over the internet. Women are sharing and reposting, saying how it moved them, made them cry, was the most amazing and touching thing they’ve ever seen….and so on….Ummmmmm…..I am alone here, or did this new marketing campaign created by Dove do nothing for anyone else?
I’m not moved. I didn’t get the least bit misty-eyed. I wasn’t even touched. (And if anyone is going to be moved and touched and cry, lol, it is ME!) So it’s been on my mind the past few days, why was I so unaffected by it? Well, after much thought, I think I get why it doesn’t move me, in fact, it irritates me.
#1. To me, it’s conveying the message that we should put more trust in other people’s opinion and judgement of us than our own thoughts/feelings. That we need to hear from someone else, “you’re beautiful” before we have permission to see it ourselves. That our value is tied up in how the rest of the world see us. Ugh.
#2. It feels borderline demeaning and completely insulting to me. Like, it’s saying that we, as women (except for that lucky! 4%), only feel as good as we look. And we’re supposedly think we look terrible, and ARE terrible people. With sad lives. That we’re so superficial that our looks are the only thing that contribute to our self-worth. And if that’s NOT the case, if we are okay with our looks and ourselves in general, then we’re not like the majority – which makes us not okay! Huh?!
#3. Okay, this is the major one. The “bad descriptions” included round face, freckles, moles, etc. The “good descriptions” were more along the lines of bright blue eyes, thin, younger, etc. Whaaat??!! Come on Dove. That’s ridiculous. As woman, as humans actually, we should be working towards including ALL characteristics in the “beautiful spectrum”. Younger, older, thin, rounder, moles, freckles, laugh lines, it’s all beautiful.
The spark of a bright kind soul inside is what gives people their beauty. No matter what the exterior looks like. It’s cliche, but you know the saying, every person is beautiful in their own way, and wow, is Dove taking us back decades or what by insinuating that beautiful is blonde, thin, blue eyed…..
There are a whole slew of other issues that makes this marketing campaign annoying and totally out of line, but that’s enough of a vent for me to feel much better about the situation 😉
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