Dove could not run on American television its latest commercial featuring unclothed women over 50 because the broadcast networks believed it violated the Federal Communications Commission’s “implied nudity” regulation, revealed Maureen Shirreff, group creative director of Ogilvy & Mather Chicago.
She noted that the spot can be viewed on the Dove Web site and is also being broadcast around the world.
“They [the networks] wanted to see some presence of clothing,” Shirreff said. The networks were very nice and supportive of the brand and the ads, but understanding the FCC’s implied nudity regulations the networks explained to Ogilvy & Mather Chicago that the ads would not be able to run.
Shirreff added that O&M and Unilever, which manufactures and markets the Dove brand, felt that it would be impossible for the spot to be edited, as was suggested by the networks, to pass federal muster.
The Pro-Age campaign launched in February, and is a continuation of Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty, which began in 2002 and has won wide praise for depicting real women in advertising.
Shireff cited research that it conducted which found only 2% of women considered themselves “beautiful” and only 5% “pretty.”
The Real Beauty campaign came out of the finding that 68% of women feel that advertising sets an unfair standard of beauty, and 75% hoped that media advertising would show diverse women of all ages, shapes and sizes, who can still be considered physically attractive.
Initially, the marketing budget was relatively small because there was some skepticism about spending on a campaign that didn’t sell a specific product. Subsequently, it received a soft launch, but the campaign got a lot of PR, Shireff said, citing a People magazine cover of the six real women in their underwear, who also made a much-talked-about appearance on Oprah. O&M estimates that the amount of free publicity generated by the campaign at $21 million. The Dove brand gained $1.2 billion in value the past three years, she said.
Shirreff’s keynote address traced the evolution of Dove‹from a personal care to beauty brand, which was launched by David Ogilvy in 1957 as “not drying skin like soap.” The agency started using real women in its TV commercials back in 1967.
Shirreff reviewed typical beauty advertising, which generally implies you are broken ladies, and we’re going to fix you.
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