STC 501 - Dove Case Study PDF

Preview

Summary

Case study on Dove for Dr. Place's Principles And Theories Of Public Relations course....

Description

Dove Drops the Soap on Diversity: An Analysis of Dove’s Racist Advertisement

Abstract Unintentional racism has become a common issue in our society. With growing platforms, companies have the ability to advertise in various ways. This however means that there are more eyes to analyze and over-analyze advertisement meanings. With the current society we live in, racial discrimination has reached a new kind of high and advertisements are continually beginning to be seen with racial insensitivity. Even the most minor details do not go unnoticed by the public, it is crucial for companies to really draw out and execute their advertisements carefully and precisely. People in this society also have gain confidence to speak about their thoughts and beliefs, especially when they feel discriminated against. When Dove, a personal care brand owned by Unilever, published a three-second video advertisement for its body wash on its US Facebook page displaying a black woman taking off her shirt reveal a white woman who then takes off her shirt to reveal an asian woman, viewers did not hesitate to criticism and boycott the brand. The racial suggestions this video showed caused an outrage and many took to social media to voice their opinions about the video and the brand.

1

Table of Contents Overview ………………..……………………………………………………....…....……….… 3 Company Background ………………..…………………………………………….....…....….. 4 History of Dove ……………………………………………..………………….……........….….. 4 Mission Statement …………..…………………………………………………………….....…... 5 Values …………………….…………………………………………………………………....... 5 Corporate Reputation …...……………………………………………………………………….. 6 The Past Crises ………………………………………………………………………...........….. 7 Visible Care Body Wash …………………………………………………………...…….......….. 7 “Choose Beautiful” Campaign ………………………………………………….………...…....... 8 Timeline of Events ……...………………………………………..………………………......... 10 Crisis Communication Strategy …...……………….……………………..…….....…………. 11 Actions and Responses…………………………………………………………….................... 13 Public Response …………………………………………………………………………........... 13 Media Response ………………………………………………………………………..….....… 15 Impact ………………………………………………………………………...........….............. 16 Reputational Impact …………………………………………………………………..……....... 16 Recommendations ……...……………………………….………………….............................. 17 References …………………………………………………………………….....…………..… 18 Appendix A ………………………….......…………………………………….....……….…… 20

2

Overview: On October 6, 2017 Dove posted a three-second video GIF on its US Facebook page to advertise a body wash. The ad showed a black woman removing her top to reveal a white woman who then takes off her shirt to reveal an asian woman. This advertisement has sparked numerous protests and many social media users considered an ads that provoke racism (Astor, 2017). The backlash began Friday after the ad was posted when makeup artist and online beauty products retailer Naomi Leann Blake (@NaytheMua) posted images from the ad on her Facebook news feed. Dove apologized for the ad on its Twitter and Facebook by expressing its deep regret and apologying that they missed the mark, yet the ad had already caused a viral uproar. Later, Marissa Solan , a spokeswoman for Dove, said the ad “was intended to convey that Dove Body Wash is for every woman and be a celebration of diversity, but we got it wrong and, as a result, offended many people,” (Astor, 2017). To add to the dilmena this ad cuased for Dove’s brand, Lola Ogunyemi, the BritishNigerian model wbo appeared in the Dove campaign , spoke out about the crisis. She found herself as a subject of controversy and wrote in to the Guardian to defend the advert's intent, “The experience, I had with the Dove team was positive. I had an amazing time on set. All of the women in the shoot understood the concept and overarching objective–to use our differences to highlight the fact that all skin deserves gentleness,” She also indicated that she was very pleased with the amendment made by the company to the announcement “does a much better job of making the campaign’s message loud and clear,” (Ogunyemi, 2017).

3

Company Background History of Dove In 1957, the Dove brand was founded by the Lever brothers. They first started as a brand that sold beauty soap bars, advertising that “Dove soap was ‘much better for your skin’ than regular soap due to its mildness and its content of ‘one-quarter cleansing cream,’ ” (Dove Company History and Review, 2017). The unique, curved shape, packaging in addition to the bird logo created a more distinct and elegant look that would remain in the minds of consumers. Dove expanded in several different international markets during the 1960s and its advertisements and campaigns evolved as well. During the 60s, the United States experienced a new was of feminism which allowed Dove to develop ads that empowered women and display them with willingness to enter the workforce, (Dove Company History and Review, 2017). This was when Dove used its first “Real Women” tagline. Dove began to progress and incorporate more complex and specialized products designed to sufficiently cover every end of personal care as the 20th century continued. Moisturizers and dry skin care were among various products that were added to the Dove brand during this time. When Dove developed specialized hair oils and hair care treatment for dry and damaged hair, it became a global leader in bath time hair care during the 1980’s. Dove spread to over 80 countries during the 1990s, also expanding and branching out to produce shampoos, deodorants, and cleansers. By introducing products that exhibited the same moisturizing qualities as their patented Dove soap bars, Dove was able to create a conscious goal to cover the full range of skin and hair cleaning The ‘modern’ Dove era began in the 2000s when even newer products were released and the Dove Real Beauty campaign launched. The campaign came from the mindset that Dove’s

4

line of products were short of makeup or cosmetics supplements, empowering its consumers to embrace the bodies that they have. To this day, this campaign celebrates women’s bodies of all sizes and types through advertisements, videos, workshops, sleepover events, and more. Dove is only one of the hundred of brands that is owned by Unilever, a consumer goods company that was created by the Lever brothers in 1929. Today the organization owns big name brands like Lipton, Vaseline, and Klondike (Dove Company History and Review, 2017).

Mission “We’re on a mission to help the next generation of women develop a positive relationship with the way they look - helping them raise their self-esteem and realise their full potential,” (Our vision, 2017). Doves goal is to break down the stereotypical image of beauty amongst females. They wish to celebrate everybody and encourage women to believe that every different body type, skin color, or look is beautiful in its own way.

Values “We believe beauty should be a source of confidence, and not anxiety. That’s why we are here to help women everywhere develop a positive relationship with the way they look, helping them raise their self-esteem and realise their full potential,” (Our vision, 2017). Dove conducted various research to find that “only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful, and anxiety about appearance begins at an early age,” and “6 out of 10 girls are so concerned with the way they look, that they actually opt out of participating fully in daily life,” (Our vision, 2017). Dove made a brand that allowed women and girls of all ages to see beauty as a source of confidence rather than anxiety.

5

Corporate Reputation Dove has educated over 20 million young people about self-esteem and are committed to reaching another 20 million by 2020. This project has been developed with the help from “global authorities on the issue of girls’ body confidence as well as those with a very real, practical understanding of girls,” (Our vision, 2017). In the past, Dove has had a few advertisements that were not racially correct and offended its public. Although they seem to recover fast, this new insensitive advertisement has set them back once again.

6

The Past Crisis: Visible Care Body Wash In 2011 Dove released an advertisement for its new Dove Visible Care Body Wash that made one blogger think of it as an intentionally racist skin whitening ad. According to the blogger, one could possibly infer that the left-to-right before and after progression in this ad shows that the Dove body wash turns black women into latino women into white women (Copyranter, 2011). See Appendix A for the full ad. This blog post, which was less than 55 words, created a major crisis for Dove, some referring to it as, “the most (unintentionally) racist skin care product ad in... about ten months,” (Nolan, 2011). While “Dove has won accolades for its Self-Esteem Fund (from Oprah, no less), encouraging women to ‘believe your own unique beauty and guide your daughter to believe in hers,’ ” this as has made many question how this ad promotes that (Anatomy of a PR crisis, 2011). However, after these allegations Dove responded to Gawker with the following:

(Source: Anatomy of a PR crisis, 2011) Even though the notion that Doves Visible Care Body Wash makes dark skin lighter, or black skin cleaner was brought to society by viewers and bloggers, the ad does arguably imply

7

this message. Dove took it upon themselves to explain the mission of Dove and what the ads intentions were hoping to educate society on their truth behind the ad.

“Choose Beautiful” Campaign Four years after its first crisis, Dove fell under fire for another one of its ads in 2015. The “Choose Beautiful” campaign “called for women around the world to renounce the media’s narrow, unattainable standards of beauty and replace them with a message of female empowerment,” (Chumsky, 2015). During a four-minute video women in five global cities were offered the option to enter a building through either a door labeled “beautiful” or a door labeled “average.” While most started walking through the “average” door, as the video continued women grew more confident in themselves and walked through the “beautiful” door with glowing faces, inspiring possibilities for all those who #ChooseBeautiful.

(Source: Chumsky, 2015)

8

However, this ad gained critics through a variety of ways. Many considered this video heavy-handed, manipulative and even patronizing. Viewers claimed it might feel a bit immodest to tell the world that they think they are beautiful, and some even questioned the word choices used above the doors. Why does empowerment have to revolve around being beautiful? “What about brains? Emotional strength? Careers? These are all things beauty companies disregard,” (Sharkey, 2015). Dove’s intentions were undoubtedly good however it is key for the beauty industry to realize that beauty is not the be-all, end-all and that is why this ad gained critics.

9

Timeline of Events ● October 6, 2017: Dove posts a three-second video clip to its US Facebook page about its Dove Body Wash. Makeup artist Naythemua posted a screenshot of this GIF on her Facebook making it go viral (Isaac, 2017). ● October 7, 2017: Dove removes the GIF from its Facebook page. Dove apologizes for the Facebook advertisement, in which a black woman appears to turn herself white (Salaky, 2017). ● October 8, 2017: Spokeswoman for Dove, Marissa Solan, speaks about the GIF’s intentions to convey that Dove Body Wash is for every woman (Astor, 2017). ● October 10, 2017: Lola Ogunyemi, a Nigerian dancer based in London who played the role as the black model in Dove’s advertisement spoke out about her work with the controversial body wash ad (Underwood, 2017).

10

Crisis Communication Three seconds is all it took for Dove to go under fire for a racist ad that had sparked many critics and protesters. To respond to this crisis, Dove took to its social media. First, Dove removed the GIF from their facebook page once there was a rise in anger from their customers and following. Then Dove took to Twitter and Facebook to write out an apology saying that the ad "missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully,” and that they "deeply regret the offense it caused," (Dove apologizes for racially insensitive ad, 2017).

(Source: Dove apologizes for racially insensitive ad, 2017)

To go along with Dove’s apology, its parent company, Unilever also released its own statement expressing its deep apology for the video-clip and explaining what thoughts had gone into making such a video.

(Source: Underwood, 2017)

11

The steps used by both Dove and Unilever fall under the category of image repair. The theory of image restoration focuses on message options to help repair what a crisis has tarnished, focusing on answering the question of “what can a corporation say when faced with a crisis?” (Benoit, 1997). This theory offers five broad categories on how to repair an image. The strategies include denial, evasion of responsibility, reduce offensiveness, corrective action, and mortification. The three strategies that Dove put into action during this crisis was reduce offensiveness, corrective action and mortification. Doved used reduce offensiveness by bolstering its strengthen in hopes of creating a positive outlook again from its audiences. “Businesses may describe positive characteristics they have or positive acts they have done in the past,” (Benoit, 1997). Dove continued to explain how its products are intended for every type of women, expressing that diversity is a great tool in our world. Dove also put corrective action strategies into place to help correct the problem. Dove took down the add and did not post any related content in hopes to correct the allegations of them having a racist brand. Unilever also pointed this out, adding to the promises that these types of ads are not correct. Finally, Dove took on the mortification strategy of image repair. Dove aired an apology on numerous social media platforms and had its parent company apologize as well. To help, Unilever also promised to look into their internal processes to eliminate anything like this from happening again.

12

Actions and Responses Public Response When Dove posted its three-second GIF on its US Facebook page it only took one screenshot for it to cause a viral outrage. The campaign showing a black woman removing a brown t-shirt to reveal a white woman underneath, who removes her t-shirt to reveal what could be an Asian woman led to numerous backlash and protest responses toward the company. Makeup artist Naythemua was the first to post a screenshot on Facebook, helping this advertisement to go viral.

(Source: Isaac, 2017) The image reached users on various social media platforms and an uproar of backlash started flooding in. Some users pointed out how this was not the first time Dove posted a problematic and even racist advertisement.

(Source: Isaac, 2017)

13

Others pointed out how Dove’s add related to the historical narrative of racist soap ads, showing the Dove image next to disturbing ads from the past.

(Source: Isaac, 2017) Instead of actually commenting on Dove’s GIF, some social media users used this opportunity to provide lists of black-owned soap companies people can patronize instead.

(Source: Isaac, 2017) Many of these tweets were favorited and retweeted by thousands of people, meaning that there was no hiding this crisis for Dove. Even with Dove’s Twitter apology people were unconvinced about their tactics and beliefs, questioning how the Team sat around and let this air.

14

Media Response Even though the Dove advertisement was posted to its US Facebook page, news media and blogs around the world began to cover what this racist ad caused backlash and boycotts. Major news outlets including the New York Times, CNBC, Time, The Sun, to name a few, covered the event along with a variety of other major news sources. There was steady news coverages throughout the week, covering responses of consumers, critics, and Dove.

(Source: Lake, 2017) At first, news outlets covered the backlash that Dove was getting by customers and viewers, attempting to explain what Dove posted and how people were reacting. Once Dove responded, news outlets began to update their articles to allow Dove to have a voice. However, the damage was already done and it was up to Dove to recreate the image of inclusivity and accepting and celebrating all body types that they had worked so hard to build.

15

Impact Reputational Impact Due to Dove’s mission and its values, despite the successful beauty campaigns that Dove has achieved over the past decades, the ad caused a big blow that harmed Dove's reputation, especially because beauty is the company’s passionate. Even thought this was a small advertisement, it still tore down Dove’s reputation and image. Erich Joachimsthaler, the founder and CEO of the branding-strategy firm Vivaldi Partners said "Dove's brand has been built on this unique and well-communicated belief system," he added "And this ad undermines the very brand value for which Dove stands." He also mentioned "When your ad is being called 'racist' by people across social media, you've done a lot more than 'miss the mark,'" (Dua, 2017). This isn't the first time Dove has caused outrage — many people see the ad as just the latest in a string of marketing efforts from Dove that elevate white beauty above that of women of color. For instance, in 2011, for example, Dove apologized for an ad for its VisibleCare body wash and in 2012, Dove faced criticism for advertising its Summer Glow Lotion. (Dua, 2017). However Dove expressed that the video was "re-evaluating our internal processes for creating and approving content to prevent us making this type of mistake in future." (Dua, 2017).

16

Recommendations It is very important that Dove develops an effective crisis communication plan. “Before a crisis occurs, judicious planning may reduce response time and possibly prevent missteps in an organization's initial response to a crisis,” (Benoit, 1997). In an instance like the racist advertisement, it would have been beneficial to have an outlined plan that the company could follow to insure effectiveness and professionalism. Another recommendation Dove should take into consideration is having a more effective way in looking over and revising press that they put out. There have been a few cases where Dove released advertisements that have been considered racist and therefore there needs to be a new process in creating and reviewing the content it outputs. The best way for Dove to handle crisis situations like this going forward would be to own up to their mistake and continue to make it right with their audience by proving that they are committed to their initial goal.

17

References Anatomy of a PR crisis: Dove forced to defend allegedly 'racist' ad. (2011, May 26). Retrieved December 05, 2017, from https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Anatomy_of_a_PR_crisis_Dove_forced_to_defe nd_alleg_8386.aspx Astor, M. (2017, October 08). Dove Drops an Ad Accused of Racism. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/08/business/dove-ad-racist.html Benoit, W. (1997). Image repair discourse and crisis communication. Retrieved December 10, 2017, from http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/98A1/Benoit.htm Chumsky , S. (2017, April 15). Why Dove's 'Choose Beautiful' campaign sparked a backlash. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2015/04/15/why-doves-choosebeautiful-campaign-sparked-a-backlash/ Copyranter, M. (2011, May 23). Dove body wash turns Black Women into Latino Women into White Women. Retrieved December 07, 2017, from http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2011/05/dove-body-wash-turns-black-women-into.html Dove apologizes for ra...