Female Cosmetics Research Group
December 1, 2018
December 1, 2018
While the idea of inclusivity is coming from numerous brands and they are all aiming to be positive and to spread this rather powerful message, some are more successful than others. Conveying such messages, if done incorrectly proved to be rather insensitive to minorities, many of which have been marginalized or discriminated against throughout the history (Tadajewski, 2012). The subject presents a challenge to marketing departments, if they wish to show the value of inclusivity in an acceptable manner. Naturally, there have been a few backfiring campaigns lately that have been accused of racism or presenting the dominance of white people. That was the case of Dove, for example. On the other hand, there are campaigns that have managed fairly well in conveying their massage to the audience, such as Fenty beauty – the unofficial leader in racial inclusivity. Therefore, this part will analyse the tools that have influence the way how the commercial campaigns were appreciated by a broader audience and what might be the reasons for failing to promote inclusivity through a campaign of some products. We will take a look at two backfiring Dove campaigns and compare it to the campaigns of Fenty beauty.
Dove and their problematic campaigns
There are two of the more notable campaigns that proved to be problematic in the eyes of the people.
The first one is based on the picture where there are before and after results of the skin when using the Dove product. They are trying to promote that the skin get better with it, what is a fairly obvious way of promoting things. However the problem is with the fact that the pictures of skin are in the background and there are the women standing in from of them. The one on the left side has darker skin than the one in the middle, and she has still darker skin in comparison to the right most woman. This resulted in a rather unfortunate position where the darker-skinned woman is in front of the before picture and the lighter-skinned woman is infront of the after picture. This makes it seem as if the woman on the left was representing the before picture. Because of the ‘gradient’ created by the skin colours of the three women, Dove was accused of trying to present whiter skin as the desirable outcome and that the people of colour were once again put in the position of the abnormality. The company was forced to formally apologise. The other ad is a video where women are taking of their T-shirts for a new woman to appear underneath – a trick not invented by Dove, but used in insensitive manner. At first, a woman with darker skin is on the screen, and underneath, a woman with lighter skin appears. Similarly to the first backfiring commercial, this one faced a backlash for once again presenting the women of colour as something that is supposedly gotten rid of for a new lighter version to appear. |
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The ideology of the brands
The overarching idea of both of the brands is definitely inclusivity and acceptance of one’s own individual traits as beautiful. Whether we talk about Dove or Fenty beauty, they are fairly similar in what they are trying to promote.
Fenty Beauty has first launched only last year, but it has already managed to make a name in the beauty industry. According their webpage, Rihanna, the founder of the brand “launched a makeup line ‘so that women everywhere would be included,’ focusing on a wide range of traditionally hard-to-match skin tones, creating formulas that work for all skin types, and pinpointing universal shades” (Fenty, 2017) Her goal was definitely met, and now her brand is best-known for the mentioned shade range and the promotion campaigns to people of all races and ethnicities (Imitaz, 2017). The brand has 40 shades of the foundation, with a variety of deeper colours, which have been disregarded by multiple brands in the past. The launch of this brand has also helped to start an open discourse in the industry about what might be the reasons for such disregard in the past. Fenty Beauty definitely helps to reflect the new trend and even further the discussions. Dove has gone even a step further with not only claiming to be inclusive, but by creating The Dove Self-Esteem Project. The company has basically a self-proclaimed ambassador of beauty diversity: “The Dove Self-Esteem Project was created from a vision where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. We’ve reached over 20 million young people with self-esteem education, together we can reach 20 million more” (Anon, 2018). They perceive that the society is making pressure on women to be beautiful and that oftentimes leads to self-consciousness, because they are afraid that they might be not good enough. Young girls are especially malleable to such negative ideas and therefore, Dove is trying to promote self-love and confidence through its project and the campaigns that are promoting products. Despite the fact that their focus is more on the broader concept of beauty, rather than inclusivity, their campaigns bring women of various shapes and skin types together to promote confidence. Thus, the way they present the confidence in beauty is through inclusivity of all the people. Fenty and Dove are managing to keep the narrative of their companies relatively coherent and straight- forward, and their goals are fairly similar. What are the reasons then for the Fenty Beauty to be successful in such promotion, while some of the Dove campaigns have backfired? Through the analysis of the commercials and the brands, we can see that the background of the brands, the approach of the commercial and the products themselves might have an effect on the difference between the success and the failure. |
Background to the brand
One of the first important aspects what draws people to like a campaign is definitely the connotation they have in their head about the brand. Therefore the background of the brand might play in important role in how they perceive the products or the campaigns.
Fenty Beauty is a brand with almost no history, being founded in 2017. This means that it is not burdened by any historical mind-set that has been influencing marketing in the past (see previous sections for more information). From the very beginning of their existence, Fenty has been promoted as an inclusive brand, with the launch of foundations, and they continue to live up to such name in the industry, therefore the people who see their commercials automatically connect success and diversity to their brand. Moreover, the brand was founded by Rihanna, a famous singer. She is a well-liked celebrity who was not afraid to touch the topics of racism and diversity even before the beginning of the brand, therefore many people immediately started to like the brand (July, 2015). Furthermore, she herself is a woman of colour from Barbados, and therefore her choice to make the brand inclusive for every skin colour can be perceived more honest, as her personal mission rather than a way to make more money. When people are creating something they are personally involved in, their goals is visible to people and therefore, their intentions do not have to be questioned.
On the other hand, Dove is a brand with a long-lasting tradition that has originated in the historical heart of the western culture – the UK. When people look at Dove, they cannot perceive a successful woman of colour trying to benefit others who might be struggling the same way she once has, but just another company selling their products. Their backstory is not as appealing as the Fenty one. Moreover, since it is an older brand, their promotion of inclusivity can be tracked back to when it started, and therefore people see that their agenda in the past has not been the same, when inclusivity was not such a huge topic in the society. Therefore, they do not have one appealing face to represent them and their ideas have shifted with the societal shift what results in the fact that in the eyes of the people, they do not present as persuasive message as the Fenty beauty might be.
Fenty Beauty is a brand with almost no history, being founded in 2017. This means that it is not burdened by any historical mind-set that has been influencing marketing in the past (see previous sections for more information). From the very beginning of their existence, Fenty has been promoted as an inclusive brand, with the launch of foundations, and they continue to live up to such name in the industry, therefore the people who see their commercials automatically connect success and diversity to their brand. Moreover, the brand was founded by Rihanna, a famous singer. She is a well-liked celebrity who was not afraid to touch the topics of racism and diversity even before the beginning of the brand, therefore many people immediately started to like the brand (July, 2015). Furthermore, she herself is a woman of colour from Barbados, and therefore her choice to make the brand inclusive for every skin colour can be perceived more honest, as her personal mission rather than a way to make more money. When people are creating something they are personally involved in, their goals is visible to people and therefore, their intentions do not have to be questioned.
On the other hand, Dove is a brand with a long-lasting tradition that has originated in the historical heart of the western culture – the UK. When people look at Dove, they cannot perceive a successful woman of colour trying to benefit others who might be struggling the same way she once has, but just another company selling their products. Their backstory is not as appealing as the Fenty one. Moreover, since it is an older brand, their promotion of inclusivity can be tracked back to when it started, and therefore people see that their agenda in the past has not been the same, when inclusivity was not such a huge topic in the society. Therefore, they do not have one appealing face to represent them and their ideas have shifted with the societal shift what results in the fact that in the eyes of the people, they do not present as persuasive message as the Fenty beauty might be.
What really makes the difference: the individualistic approach of Fenty Beauty
As individualism has become one of the most influential ideas of our era along with fight for equality, we have decided to examine it. Since the ideology of the brands in terms of women empowerment and equality and inclusivity seems to be same, we need to focus on the usage of individualism in the commercials to figure out what the crucial differences between the ads might be.
Individualism in the ads
Fenty beauty commercials present strikingly unique types of people. They give space to people of various ethnicities, races and nationalities to create this mosaic of diversity. But although the people are shot in the same manner and the ad remains internally coherent, they all have a unique spot in the commercial. Every person shot brings a different personality into the picture through different types of clothing, and the appearance of the people. The intention of the shots is to capture individuals who are connected through the message of Fenty Beauty. When one watches the commercial, the differences between the people do not allow anyone to consider the models to be a homogeneous group. The ad is celebrating uniqueness and diversity, with the underlying message of welcoming everyone to be included in the group.
On the other hand, Dove commercials fail to visibly create such sense of uniqueness and individualities. Whether it was the intention, or not, when it comes to both backfiring commercials, the way they are produced does not allow for individuality. When you look at the ‘Before and After’ picture, you see three women in the shot. They are dressed in the same clothes, they stand next to one another and even the camera does not help them, because there is no close-up and they never appear on their own. Moreover, the way they are styled in the ad makes them seem like they intentionally create a gradient of skin colour, what even further ‘dis-individualizes’ the models in the commercial and makes it look as if the ad wanted to make us feel as if it was intentional. The Dove video does not celebrate the individuality either. The biggest complaint about the ad is that an Afro-American woman changes into the white woman. From the visual perspective, it does not seem as if there were 3 individual people, but rather one that just changes by taking her shirt off. The fact that they all, once again wear just a plain shirt matching their skin colour does not help the idea of individuality either. Dove fails to promote uniqueness of its audience altogether.
On the other hand, Dove commercials fail to visibly create such sense of uniqueness and individualities. Whether it was the intention, or not, when it comes to both backfiring commercials, the way they are produced does not allow for individuality. When you look at the ‘Before and After’ picture, you see three women in the shot. They are dressed in the same clothes, they stand next to one another and even the camera does not help them, because there is no close-up and they never appear on their own. Moreover, the way they are styled in the ad makes them seem like they intentionally create a gradient of skin colour, what even further ‘dis-individualizes’ the models in the commercial and makes it look as if the ad wanted to make us feel as if it was intentional. The Dove video does not celebrate the individuality either. The biggest complaint about the ad is that an Afro-American woman changes into the white woman. From the visual perspective, it does not seem as if there were 3 individual people, but rather one that just changes by taking her shirt off. The fact that they all, once again wear just a plain shirt matching their skin colour does not help the idea of individuality either. Dove fails to promote uniqueness of its audience altogether.
Individualism of the product
When it comes to products that are being promoted, Fenty Beauty once again recognized the individuality in a better manner the Dove. Despite the fact that it truly depends on the product itself (since there is a need for numerous shades of foundation, but no need for specialized soaps), Fenty better reflects the mind-set of the audience.
Fenty offers diversity of products and every woman buying them can select what suits them the best. Naturally, the Fenty foundations were a hit, since they were able to serve so many women of different skin types. Women were able to come to a shop and rather than searching for something remotely similar. One woman mentioned for Glamour magazine:
"Once, I was looking for a specific drugstore foundation and went to five different Walmart and Target stores [that carried the line], and I still couldn't find [my shade].One day I'd go to one store, the next day, I'd drive a ways to the other. After all that, I had to end up buying it online—and you know how hard it is to match yourself online." (Schallon, 2018)
Thanks to Fenty Beauty, some people are finding a shade that matches them for the first time and that is a special thing for them. Rihanna expressed her feelings about people enjoying Fenty: "I never could have anticipated the emotional connection that women are having with the products and the brand as a whole. Some are finding their shade of foundation for the first time, getting emotional at the counter” (Lang, 2017). Similarly, other products are offered in a wide range of colours and options, and therefore the buyers can feel special when choosing something from the brand and therefore when it comes to their commercials, women feel that their individual tastes can be fulfilled.
Dove does not have such wide range of products. Naturally, since they are mostly focused on hygiene and beauty, they need to reflect various dermatologic problems, and diversity does not come to play as much. But, the fact that they promote just a regular soap while trying to promote diversity, might result in people not fully appreciating their message, since their product range does not reflect it.
Fenty offers diversity of products and every woman buying them can select what suits them the best. Naturally, the Fenty foundations were a hit, since they were able to serve so many women of different skin types. Women were able to come to a shop and rather than searching for something remotely similar. One woman mentioned for Glamour magazine:
"Once, I was looking for a specific drugstore foundation and went to five different Walmart and Target stores [that carried the line], and I still couldn't find [my shade].One day I'd go to one store, the next day, I'd drive a ways to the other. After all that, I had to end up buying it online—and you know how hard it is to match yourself online." (Schallon, 2018)
Thanks to Fenty Beauty, some people are finding a shade that matches them for the first time and that is a special thing for them. Rihanna expressed her feelings about people enjoying Fenty: "I never could have anticipated the emotional connection that women are having with the products and the brand as a whole. Some are finding their shade of foundation for the first time, getting emotional at the counter” (Lang, 2017). Similarly, other products are offered in a wide range of colours and options, and therefore the buyers can feel special when choosing something from the brand and therefore when it comes to their commercials, women feel that their individual tastes can be fulfilled.
Dove does not have such wide range of products. Naturally, since they are mostly focused on hygiene and beauty, they need to reflect various dermatologic problems, and diversity does not come to play as much. But, the fact that they promote just a regular soap while trying to promote diversity, might result in people not fully appreciating their message, since their product range does not reflect it.
Final thoughts
To conclude, we can say that the technology has forced the brands to be quicker about the societal changes and they are immediately judged for their missteps. Therefore, the idea of diversity and inclusiveness and female empowerment is finally present in the commercials and advertisements. It only depends on the production of the campaign to what extent it can be successful. The analysis of the brands and their commercials shows that the history of the company might have an effect on how the commercial is accepted by the wide population. What is however even more important, the individualistic narrative has affected us even more. Individualism has been here for the longer time, and it has become significantly crucial to include it when one aims to promote diversity and inclusiveness. Because to accept all the people does not mean that they are homogenous, but rather to celebrate the differences while realizing the similarities. To promote such message, the producers have to aim to make people feel unique, to make those who represent minorities or marginalized group stand up instead of disregarding the differences and try to promote that there are no differences. And while Fenty beauty has managed to convey this message on many levels, the Dove commercials that backfired presented women in a homogenous manner despite trying to promote diversity.
Nonetheless, Dove proves that when it includes more individualistic approach and is more sensible to the idea of diversity, they are able to present inclusivity nicely. You can read more about it in the next section.
Nonetheless, Dove proves that when it includes more individualistic approach and is more sensible to the idea of diversity, they are able to present inclusivity nicely. You can read more about it in the next section.