U.S.TV censors have banned Dove's TV Spots promoting their new Pro-Age Product line. The reason: the over-50 women appear nude...not full frontal nudity mind you, more like Helen Mirren nude in the movie Calendar Girls. The campaign and the ban have gotten the attention of bloggers and mainstream media. Blogger Mary Brown at Boomer Women Marketing Group writes:
Excuse me…Victoria Secret models can strut and pole dance across our TV screens but Dove’s revolutionary ProAge commercial, a beautiful and sensitive portrayal of bodies of women 50+, is banned in the US?! Interestingly, I’m having a hard time finding out why or who exactly felt these ads were too inappropriate to air. They are being aired in Canada and UK.
This week's TIME unpacks the campaign both from a strategy,consumer reaction,and product effectiveness viewpoint.
In its first global launch ever, Dove hopes to attract the 40 million or so baby-boomer women in the wrinkle-war zone with a provocative twist: instead of demonizing wrinkles with "antiaging" products, Dove celebrates them and calls its new line Pro Age. For the Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever, Dove's $52 billion parent company, the stakes are high: total sales in 2006 grew just 4%. Indeed, since 2004, Unilever's sales growth has been in the single digits, while key competitor Procter & Gamble, which owns rival beauty powerhouse Olay, is growing twice as fast and enjoying healthier profit margins (22% in 2006). Dove needs a hit, but in a global culture obsessed with looking younger, will the older-is-O.K. approach catch on?
Holly Buchanan at Marketing to Women Online writes about the marketing message Dove is trying to convey that at 50 the goal isn't to look younger, just look your personal best.
I was curious about the products - if they aren't supposed to stop aging, what are they supposed to do? Here's what the product page had to say... Dove created new pro·age products that reflect the unique needs of women in their later years. Formulated to nourish and condition, pro·age helps revive and renew skin and hair. Revive and renew? doesn't that sound a lot like the "anti-aging" products? But here's what they had to say in the FAQ section it is important to care for rather than disguise your changing physical appearance wow -now THAT's powerful - that got my attention while "revive and renew" sounded so much like the same old marketing hype, it didn't even register on my radar. But is the above line in any of their advertising? I don't know - I haven't seen it - but I sure hope so.
How big a deal is it that you can't see the TV Spots. Some suspect the ban may have been part of the strategy.As Tim Redpath at the Train of Thoughts Blog observes,
It's a shame the ad was lifted but then again, smart companies don't mind creating a bit of controversy (see Marketing two-step) to get their message across, so mission accomplished for Dove.
Who needs TV when you have the internet anyway?
The video is Also available on Dove's website. where you can join a conversation about the ads, the products and aging.
YouTube has the German language version.
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