Sunday, February 18, 2007

Disturbing!

Recently Pooja posted sthg about body lotions and that sparked off thoughts on the category - Besides, I work on a beauty brand so usually try to keep up2date with all that's going on.

So there are these ads for Pond's Age thingie lotion that keep getting in the way of my sunday PM telly schedule. man, they're disturbing. 1. They are so very dove 2. They are so very 5 yrs ago 3. What's with these women using cream for 7 days to get their husband's attn + use that as self validation

Is it just me? I'm all for beauty products, heck I'm a junkie myself - I have drawers of the stuff cause I buy things for packaging and scents and fun. But for ME - or cause I believe they'll do something purposive (ie conditioner to get rid of snags, sunblock with SPF60). which brings one to the whole.. women dont dress/ make them selves up for men... they do it for other women... hmm, actually we do it for ourselves.

My point is, this seems to be a bit of a negative/ defensive stance for Pond's age defying lotion. sure, look good.. but look good for you.. or feel so great that you're getting tons of attn & so the guy in ur life thinks, wow I'm so damn lucky! If I turn 35 and I need to get my husband's attn via face cream... uuuuhhhhh - that's it, grounds for instant divorce!

And I bet the stuff will sell - coz they're doing tons of sampling and events n have set up good looking counters in lots of stores. but even if it does sell, I personally feel it's doing women a disservice.

Incidentally, there's a new brand in the market called Dazzler. Ad = range shot + tag line 'for beautiful girls' - so either its to make us girls beautiful or anyone who is not using it isnt beautiful. personally, i wouldn't touch the stuff with a bargepole... so that's it, I'm off the beauty list there and doomed to be ignored by men in 10 yrs time. oh woe is very exclusively me!

Thoughts, anyone else? Would love to hear what other women think!

PS: If anyone worked on this campaign, no offence. just a personal POV

7 comments:

blaiq said...

I agree with you completely, FiNK. I too have noticed and wondered, but I just put it down to me.

In my opinion, the commercials are badly scripted. The reference to the product - and the stories - all sound forced.

Subramaniam Avinash said...

I think most people are shallow enough to buy into this kind of advertising. Unfortunately.

meraj said...

yeah....people will buy into this 'dovetale':)

because Dove is a good product (and talks this language), somewhere in the female consciousness it might seem that this also will be wortha try...perhaps...

and i agree with all your points, kajal.

pooR_Planner said...

www.marketingmagic.ca/articles/Dove.htm

This is interesting.

Kaj said...

Hello Boys!! I'm so glad it's not just a girl thing!

@Meraj - Remember the original Dove ads that came with the whole 1/4 cream + litmus test thingie? This Ponds Anti Age has no basis other than scripted ie fake anecdotes? Besides, even Dove has changed it's story since with their real women positioning - I love that campaign!! Not only was it borne out of research, it was effective + occupies a very positive dimension in this woman beauty space. perhaps Ponds should think about aping this instead..*hmm*

@Roop - great article. thanks. I think this bit underlines the issue: "The Campaign for Real Beauty is based on a belief that beauty comes in different shapes, sizes, ages and that real beauty can be genuinely stunning."

Isn't that more realistic and happier than oh man, I got a wrinkle in the corner of my left eyelid. my boyfriend's definitely not taking me out for dinner tonight. Better run out for some Pond's....

Anonymous said...

This is probably a topic beaten to death amongst your circles, but every time I watch a fairness cream ad in India I cringe at how it borders on racism.

I seriously thought the hot miss Bipasha Basu would once and for all force the country to face how artificial that this national obsession with fairness is but that doesn't seem to be happening at all. Not surprisingly I have found desis to be amongst the most racist cultural groups here in the U.S.. Often they don't even realize the irony in cribbing about racism inflicted by 'goras' one minute and deriding 'kallas' the next minute.

Saurabh Sharma said...

Personal opinions aside; it works