Dove's 'Real Beauty': Enjoy It While It Lasts

I'm not a teenage girl, or a woman of any age, and I'm pretty sure the beauty industry isn't responsible for any of my insecurities. So why do I find Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" so affecting?

It must be because the ads are pretty tremendous -- if "ads" is even the right word for them. "Onslaught," which hit last week, and its predecessor, "Evolution," are hardly designed to sell soap. In fact, they're anti-ads, casting a harsh light on the fakery and mind-games involved in marketing to women.

Noting a recent slowdown in sales of Dove products, Advertising Age recently wondered "whether the campaign, hailed as one of the most courageous creative breakthroughs in recent years, went a step too far in embracing aging in all its naked, wrinkled and sagging glory."

You know what? It probably did. And no doubt in another year or two, Unilever will decide it's time to forget about making women like themselves and go back to shilling body wash. But in the meantime, Ogilvy & Mather Toronto will keep on producing truly great videos like "Onslaught," videos that will go down in the annals of memorable ads, videos that will probably inspire more than a few people to go into advertising, and that just might breed some lifelong brand loyalty on the part of Dove consumers. Ad Age's Bob Garfield called "Onslaught" a "triumph." If you haven't watched it already, here's your chance.