Dove's campaign for "The Women"

I like skincare products. Lots of 'em. So, when Dove emailed me to say it would send me a basket of goodies and a pair of free movie tickets to a flick called "The Women", I said yes. And now I'm blogging about it. So there. (I'll never get to actually go to the movie, BTW. Seeing a movie outside of the house is beyond my current abilities.) Dove has invested heavily in promoting what looks like the ultimate chick flick, in that it features, among others, Meg Ryan, Bette Midler, Annette Bening and Jada Pinkett-Smith. Dove is hosting a whole bunch of videos about the movie on its site here, and promoting it via emails to bloggers-with-no-standards who will post for the sake of free skincare products. Ha! Apparently, the movie deals with many issues that have been the focus of "The Campaign for Real Beauty." If it seems unsynergistic that Ryan--who became a poster-child for bad plastic surgery--is behind this movie, look the other way, though she looks a bit more natural in these vids than she has in years.

Dove's retouched, fat-bottomed girls

So retoucher quoted in The New Yorker says that those real women in the Dove ads were retouched. I guess I'm lukewarm on how big this controversy is, although others are getting all hot and bothered about it. It's not like he turned them from size 12 into size 0, but go at it anyway, if you want. UPDATE: So now everyone involved, except the women themselves, has issued a statement denying any substantive retouching. Turns out Annie Liebovitz shot the thing. Anyway, retoucher Pascal Dangin, says: "The recent article published by The New Yorker incorrectly implies that I retouched the images in connection with the [2005] Dove 'real women' ad. I only worked on the [2007 Dove Pro-Age] campaign taken by Annie Leibovitz and was directed only to remove dust and do color correction—both the integrity of the photographs and the women's natural beauty were maintained." OK. Time to move on.

What a chick thinks of the Dove campaign

The next iteration of the "Campaign for Real Beauty" is out and the male critics are pissing all over it like there's no tomorrow. Their main point is that this is commercialism masquerading as public service because Dove products and advertising don't always live up to the "real beauty" theme, or otherwise Unilever wouldn't be selling firming lotion. That argument isn't entirely lost on me, but as men aren't the target market for this campaign, let me go on a bit. The bottom line is I'd rather see this campaign out there than not out there. Going back a few years to the Dove "Evolution" vid, I remember seeing it making me feel a bit better at my lot as yet another woman who knows she'll never look like those who grace the pages of Vogue. Even though we all know that most magazines air brush the bejesus out of the photos of models and actresses (how 'bout that Vanity Fair cover of Madonna?), "Evolution" was an actual demonstration of it, and that made all the difference. I also have been known to breathe the occasional sigh of relief in seeing those Dove print ads of what Freddie Mercury described as "fat-bottomed girls," even though I'm not one of them. It's just refreshing to see bodies that are imperfect, when 99 percent of the media images out there project otherwise. Unfortunately, since Dove began running this campaign, it's not as though the rest of the beauty world has embraced the message—with the exception of Playtex—so if Dove wants to continue to carry the torch—even if, like the Olympic one, it's somewhat tainted—than it's fine with me.

Olay site gets really personal

Like most women of a certain age, I'm a sucker for skincare advice, so when I saw a commercial tonight on HGTV for OlayForYou.com, I just had to swing by. It takes about five minutes to go through a series of multiple choice questions, at which point Olay recommends a skincare regimen. Of course, all the products suggested were from Olay. What would have been really cool is if they threw in a Dove product here and there just to make it seem objective. Who knows if I'll follow through on their recommendations. Despite my deep, intense hatred of CVS--more on that some other time--I'm a sucker for the skincare aisle. However, worth pointing out that when I Googled a couple of the recommended products, I couldn't find them online.

Dove's campaign for real hair

Not sure that women have quite as many self-esteem issues surrounding their hair as they do their bodies, but Dove is extending the premise of its "Campaign for Real Beauty" to haircare with a new CGM campaign called "Dove Love Your Hair" which asks women to submit their own print ad. Not a bad idea, but nothing can really beat the impact of the big-boned gals that made up some of the early "Campaign for Real Beauty" advertising. The short film promoting the contest, above, is somewhat reminiscent of "Evolution" the Cannes-winning viral video. Via Mediapost.