Ad of the Day: Dove's 'Beauty Patch' Seeks to Empower Women by Fooling Them

Dove has long shown an impressive ability to have it both ways: encouraging women to respect their natural beauty while also selling them a litany of beauty-enhancement products. Now, the Unilever brand is going even further, essentially saying every aspect of its industry is a scam. In this new spot—the newest of several marketing stunts inspired by the success of the brand's "Real Beauty Sketches"—we see women being offered an unbranded "beauty patch" that will help them generally look and feel better. You may see where this is headed, but watch the video before I spoil it further: Since this is an ad for Dove and not some sort of double-blind lab experiment on the placebo effect, it's easy to predict that the women involved would end up feeling inspired and motivated to toss aside the crutches of products that claim to reduce the impact of aging and other inevitable forces. Sure enough, upon the big reveal that the beauty patch is a powerless MacGuffin, instead of feeling misled or naive, one participant calls it "a life-altering experience." All of the women quickly absorb the lesson, reacting with a lack of bitterness reminiscent of when Dorothy Gale learned she could have left Oz five minutes after arriving. "Knowing that I don't need something to make me feel that way—that it's just who I am and it was hidden and now it's not anymore," says one woman, "that's very empowering." As with many of Ogilvy & Mather's "Real Beauty" projects, this one—which hews closely to the "Sketches" model, complete with the impartial professional who's just conducting an experiment—seems to pose more questions than it answers. Is a woman's self-esteem really so easily influenced that a few weeks of placebo could improve the way they see themselves? Is Dove empowering women or calling them gullible? By illustrating a contrast that anyone could identify with, "Real Beauty Sketches" prompted vigorous debate about self-image versus reality. But in an era where marketers are learning to respect women's intellects and leave condescension behind, will "Patches" be met with anything more than a collective eye roll? CREDITS Client: Dove (Unilever) Spot: "Patches" Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Brazil Chief Creative Officer: Anselmo Ramos Executive Creative Directors: Roberto Fernandez, Paco Conde Art Director: Renato Zandoná Copywriter: Brux Head of Global Production: Veronica Beach Senior Producer: Mariane Goebel Producer: Renata Neumann Business Manager: Libby Fine Chief Executive Officer: Luiz Fernando Musa Head of Client Services: Daniela Glicenstajn Account Director: Ricardo Honegger Account Supervisor: Julia Barreira Planning Director: Mollie Hill Global Managing Director: Erica Hoholick Global Managing Partner: Stephane Orhan Global Planning Partner: Kate Smither Client: Steve Miles, Jocelyn Hsieh, Rita Szalay Production Company: Caviar Director: Kristopher Belman Executive Producer: Jasper Thomlinson Line Producer: Luke Thomlinson Clark Director of Photography: Robert Chappel Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissor Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver Producers: Chrissy Hamilton, Meagen Carroll Editor: Paul Kumpata Assistant Editor: Arielle Zakowski Flame Artist: Dan Ellis Executive Producer: Megan Meloth Producer: Heather Johann Music: Great Garbo Composers: Diego Baldenweg, Nora Baldenweg, Lionel Vincent Baldenweg Music Producer: Groove Guild Sound Mix: Lime Studio Executive Producer: Jessica Locke Mixer: Joel Waters Color Grading: A52 Colorist: Paul Yacono

Brand Marketing

Ad of the Day: Dove's 'Beauty Patch' Seeks to Empower Women by Fooling Them

Yet they don't seem to mind

David Griner

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David Griner