'Onslaught' Ad

The New Dove advert, if lacking some of the interest and incredibility of the last one, is brilliantly clear and forceful in its representation of the extreme vulnerability of young girls in the ubiquitous media face of the beauty industry. Of course, the irony of an advert condemning the violence of a culture of relentless advertising is immediately patent and rather unnerving (an advert turning on advertising in order to advertise, sort of like some fucked-up all-encompassing double denouement), despite the seeming side-stage position taken by the product to the social good of their 'campaign for real beauty' (if momentarily distracted, a read of the ad company's self-congratulations, or the fact that Dove's parent company is Unilever, can serve to remind). But then as such it has an inside position from which to communicate this important message unattainable to any other similar campaigns. This trend (Dove's use of 'real people' has been called the advertising phenomenon of the year') could not be self-sustaining within the world of beauty product advertising. Hopefully it might act as a catalyst for this sort of concern to gain high-profile media coverage outside of the advertising industry.