Dove Apologizes for 'Racist' Soap Ad That Turned Black Woman White

October 8th, 2017, 05:49 pm

Dove Apologizes for 'Racist' Soap Ad That Turned Black Woman White

Is @Dove soap’s marketing strategy
Before - black & dirty
After - Caucasian & clean
Also *who* is approving these ads? pic.twitter.com/l5tq5ZcAJs
— Megha Mohan (@meghamohan) October 8, 2017

Dove apologized and pulled down an online ad for an online soap ad in which a black woman pulled up her shirt to reveal a white redheaded woman underneath.

You can do better than "missed the mark." Flip + diminishing. Deepens your offense. You do good work. Have been for years. Do better here.
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) October 8, 2017

source, source

Tagged: apology / damage control, ava duvernay, beauty / makeup, race / racism

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Imo their marketing scheme has always been hackneyed and disingenuous

Didn't they start with that "real women have curves" bullshit?

I know, they're a Unilever company, the same company that owns Axe, it's all just shallow as hell marketing

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mjspice

I saw this on twitter earlier. Dove is a repeat offender with calling black skin dirty and white skin clean.

Isn't this ad old? I feel like I'm going crazy but Dove or another company has done this before, right?

I remember seeing the one on the right before

i think it was an ad not in the US but also dove or a dove subsidiary.

sad that it's so common that i can't even remember the specifics

yeah this sounds so familiar to me

I've seen an ad like this before but I think it was for washing powder

I remember one when a lady put a black man into a washing machine and he came out Asian I think?

(no subject) -

thelove_witch

(no subject) - (Anonymous) Expand

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peripheralpill Expand

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principino Expand

(no subject) -

thelove_witch

This is a pretty common theme that's used in soap ads honestly, I've seen a few different ads that do something like this.

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wavvy Expand

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cassettebat Expand

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buffy_usa

That "apology" is bull shit. They knew what they were implying with that ad, and they were okay with it being released.

Also who really associates white with clean?

Whites lol

lool

a lot of people tbh

(no subject) -

thelove_witch

Asians

in Asia where whitening cream is a huge market. I remember recently when Tzuyu of kpop group Twice was called "dirty" and needs to shower more for being darker skinned

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ramenhime Expand

the kkk?

Wow wtf there is no way you can mistake what this meant by the creator of the ad. So no excuse for it being approved. I hope they fired all directly involved with this.

How does this shit get approved... hire more poc

That's what drives me nuts in situations like this. Like how many rounds did this go through? How many people sat around and was like "yup, this is great!" It's either, everyone in the office is an idiot or companies who fuck up like this do this on purpose to get people talking.

Hell, I'm white and probably not particularly "woke" and I would have fired everyone involved with this whole concept the minute I saw it.

I'm fairly certain their objective overall is to gain traction and stay as news no matter how it can tarnish the brand.

dove stays having trash, faux-empowering, racist and sexist ads

Wtf who in their alt right mind came up with this...

Edited at 2017-10-08 05:11 pm (UTC)

What............ the fuck

What the fuck?

I'm laughing because it's so absurd. I can't believe someone ok'd it in the first place.

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thelove_witch

lmao this is me. not saying it’s funny but like....this shit wouldnt happen if, idk, they hired black folk on their teams for exemple.

i feel like even the most dense, oblivious marketing employee in the world could see the red flags with this immediately but here we are

Edited at 2017-10-08 05:35 pm (UTC)

this isn't the first time they've done this shit. at this point, it's on purpose.
sadly, i've been using dove for 20+ years. nothing else works on my skin without drying it out or making me break out :/ nothing cheap, anyway.

I switched to handmade soaps and I never looked back girl. Go to your local market and you'll find someone or multiple people making them, and once you find a good one just keep buying them to support your community 👍🏽

i've tried that in the past, too. it's just dove or nothing tbh :/

Lever2000 works great for me. Their original scent is very refreshing too. Sadly, I don't find it in a lot of places, or even see any advertising for it anywhere. I've been using it FOR YEARS though, and so I've stayed loyal to it regardless of it being advertised in my face or not.

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fromyourashes Expand

same. I'm allergic to a lot of things, mainly fragrance, and Dove is the only thing that works. Even Aveeno makes my skin itch like crazy.

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fromyourashes Expand

smh I've been looking for the full ad. It goes from black, to white, to brown, apparently. Ppl wouldn't have been upset if they had changed the order. They keep doing shit like this, though. If they'd only hire a more diverse marketing team..,

yep, I saw it on tv (i'm not from the us) and they change it from different races, not just black to white

Edited at 2017-10-09 10:48 am (UTC)

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