Richard Roepers Response to the Dove ad Campaign - Essay Example

English Richard Roeper’s Response to the Dove ad Campaign The Dove ad Campaign is a topic that attracted a wide range of reaction from various criticisms especially the new definition of beauty. The Dove ad campaign was launched by Unilever in an effort to bring about a new image of a woman and new definition of the term beautiful. By using the real woman rather than the slim and shaped woman, in the advertisement was a different dimension of beauty in the real woman. The traditional believe about a beautiful woman is one who is slim and has a figure and those who are different are regarded as ugly, plump or unattractive.

Richard Roeper, a famous columnist, developed a criticism of the Dove ad Campaign and suggested that the whole issue was a bad and a dishonest and hypocritical idea. This essay supports the idea of Roeper that the Dove ad Campaign was unsettling and unsubstantiated. The Dove ad campaign was launched little after a research that showed that only 4% of women were bold enough to regard themselves as beautiful in public. The low percentage shows that women have developed an inferior regard of themselves and that this has undermined their public confidence.

The launch of this new image of a beautiful woman was aimed at bringing about a new image of the women as part of the responsibility of the media to model the beliefs of the society. From this point of view, this campaign was part of the media’s effort to change the idea of the people concerning the beauty of a woman. In this campaign, Unilever printed the images of the average woman and defined this as beauty, images that most men regarded as rather plump and shapeless (Tavris 209-241). However, the company required the people to vote whether the women in these billboards were beautiful or ugly.

This raised the question whether the organization was really encouraging this kind body type or they were just out to criticize fat women. Critically, the intention of the advertisement seems to double edge and not a mere motivation of the society to appreciate women. Poesner (30) was among the critics of the Dove ad Campaign that seem to back the idea of Poezer that the campaign was rather unsettling. To Poesner, the development of the campaign was rather a bad timing and already the society was embracing the need to keep away from obesity, a disease that was associated with plump women.

In this regard, the move of Unilever to encourage a society that appreciates a plump woman was building a society that was already eroded by time. This reaction of Poesner seems to strengthen the idea of Poezer that the Dove ad campaign was sceptical campaign whose aim was to discourage women from being the fat types but to remain within the past definition of a beautiful woman that was provided by the media. From this point of view, this campaign was more hypocritical and had nothing to do with the empowerment of women.

More criticism rose up when later Unilever launched its products that aimed at boosting self-image by reducing the wrinkles in the women’s legs. For instance, the “fair and lovely” lotion launched by Uniliver was targeted for the women to firm their thighs as a way of enhancing their beauty (Comor 53). It is contradictory that the same Dove that supports natural beauty is the same that sells products that bring about artificial beauty. By doing this, the organization seems to be dishonest and to hold the idea that a chunky woman, as Roeper calls them, has a chance to improve their looks by losing their natural beauty to Dove’s lotion.

Although many people rose up against Roeper and regarded him as sexist loser, many have supported him as rather a transparent person who is bold enough to be honest with the average woman. From the motive of the Dove ad Campaign it is clear that the organization holds the same opinion as Roeper that plump women should improve their looks. In conclusion, Roeper’s criticism on the agenda of the Dove ad Campaign is more realistic as opposed to the development of this campaign that seeks to attack women more indirectly.

He stands his position that women who are plump are rather ugly and should seek a remedy for their image rather than taking the sticking by the ironical portrayal of women. The fact that Dove launched new products to remedy the weaknesses of plump women shows that they are unsettled and that their campaign was a dishonest one. As a matter of fact, the company incites the public, expressing their unsettled position on the real definition of beauty in the American society. Critically speaking, the stand of the Dove ad campaign is rather ironical and can termed as unsettling and dishonest portrayal of the image of the beautiful woman in the society.

Works Cited Comor, Edward. “The Birth of Capitalist Consumption,” in Consumption and the Globalization Project. Palgrave: Macmillan, 2008. Print Posner, Jennifer L. “Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ Backlash.” Women in Media News. Accessed from: . [Accessed on 28th Oct, 2013] Tavris, Carol. “Measuring Up,” in Reading Women’s Lives. Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing. 2005. Print