Despite their multifaceted ad campaigns intended to appeal to various demographics, the main priority of most corporate conglomerates remains transparently consistent: to make a buck by any means necessary—even if it requires stooping to hypocrisy.
The multinational corporation Unilever does just that. It owns more than 400 brands (many of which generate over a billion dollars from annual sales) including the popular brands, Dove and Axe, which sell personal care products such as body spray and shampoo.
These two brands have little in common. They have starkly different ideas of which scents are nasally tolerable (Axe seems to lack this judgment), and Dove and Axe cater to extremely different market segments.
Dove primarily markets to women, and in 2006, launched its “Campaign for Real Beauty” financed by the Dove Self-Esteem fund. The goal of their commercials and billboards was to cleanse the stain that hyper-sexualization in the media leaves on young girls and women.
So instead of using airbrushed, heavily made-up, stick-thin models, the company hired women of all shapes and ethnicities for their ads, hoping to encourage women to embrace themselves the way they are. Good move, Dove.
On the other hand, Axe, which appeals to a male market, objectifies women in its ads. Campaigns include its “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” and its “Axe Effect” series of suggestive commercials in which attractive women dance around in skimpy outfits and succumb to the charm of “alluring Axe-wearing men.”
The central message is, “If you spray Axe on yourself, girls on the street, including the innocent schoolgirls, will stop what they are doing, drop everything, and jump on you.”
In the real world, irresistibility isn’t sold in an aerosol can, but of course it sells. Why? The commercials shamelessly feed society’s obsession with sex, which is one of the few things that can take over the conscience of someone with a minute-long attention span.
These corporations do not need to depict “cool” as escorting elderly ladies across the street, but reducing women into mere crazed, sex objects that have no self-restraint is demeaning, even if the exaggerated commercials aren’t meant to be taken seriously.
Alas, the media is the media. So long as it generates profit, companies will continue to dangle provocative themes that eager consumers seem to jump at, and there is only so much that can be done.
But even so, what sets this case apart is the hypocrisy that Unilever attempts to play off as “satisfying the individual needs of different people.”
Yeah, right. Unilever’s two-faced business choices are corrosive to culture, as well as its reputation.
It is about time that corporations and parent companies hold themselves accountable and develop a sense of integrity by assuming more corporate social responsibility (CSR). Since capitalism doesn’t set any ground rules for private sectors, they need to take that initiative themselves.
If this is too much for corporations to handle, then they don’t deserve the credit given to them. Should Unilever be patted on the back for caring about girls’ self-esteem? Sorry. Maybe on some level they do care, but it’s important that consumers are aware that their main motive always has been, and always will be, making more money.