This ad is causing controversy. It features a black woman on the end labeled 'before,' a latin woman in the center, and a white woman on the other end labeled 'after.' The implication is that the black woman was dirty, the latin was cleaner (but not quite there), and the white woman was the end result of the wash.

What do you think?

http://gawker.com/5804724/dove-body-wash-strong-enough-to-turn-a-black-woman-white

Quote :

Dove Body Wash: Strong Enough to Turn a Black Woman White

Hamilton Nolan — Dove Body Wash: Strong Enough to Turn a Black Woman WhiteDove VisibleCare body wash: "Visibly more beautiful skin." Bye-bye black skin, hello white skin! (Scrub hard!) Can this ad possibly be real? Some people think it is! We've emailed Dove's representatives for confirmation, and we'll update with their reply. If real, this could be the most (unintentionally) racist skin care product ad in... about ten months.

UPDATE: It appears that the ad is real; commenters point out that the photo can be found on this Dove website, and others have told us they've seen it in magazines. We'll add any official response we receive from Dove.

UPDATE 2: We received the following statement from Edelman, Dove's PR firm:

"We believe that real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes, colors and ages and are committed to featuring realistic and attainable images of beauty in all our advertising. We are also dedicated to educating and encouraging all women and girls to build a positive relationship with beauty, to help raise self-esteem and to enable them to realize their full potential.

The ad is intended to illustrate the benefits of using Dove VisibleCare Body Wash, by making skin visibly more beautiful in just one week. All three women are intended to demonstrate the "after" product benefit. We do not condone any activity or imagery that intentionally insults any audience."

That repulsive. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?

It looks unfortunate that it could be taken that way, but I highly doubt that is what Dove had in mind!

Is that some kind of a joke. Not only is it racist but its also extremely bad taste on the Company's part. I can't believe they even approved of it.

I visited the website and I see the picture but nowhere can I see that it says "can turn a black woman white"

http://www.dovecloseup.com/

Shale wrote:

Tony Marino wrote:

I visited the website and I see the picture but nowhere can I see that it says "can turn a black woman white"

Thanx for the clarification Tony. It appears that the before & after were on the panel of skin, showing the creases in the before.

Just bad placement for the overly sensitive that the black/latina/white women were in the order from before to after.

Some ppl just look for being slighted.

I thought so.

It is shameful that the placement of the women from left to right as they are would bring about such speculation about it being a racist ad, when clearly, the before and after had to do with less dry skin, and all three of the happy women are representative of the happy "after".

RedBedroom wrote:

It is shameful that the placement of the women from left to right as they are would bring about such speculation about it being a racist ad, when clearly, the before and after had to do with less dry skin, and all three of the happy women are representative of the happy "after".

I think there are people who could offended by an egg roll if they tried. The intent of the ad is obvious. No one is trying to "turn" anything other than dry skin into smooth. There was a comedian quite a few years ago who talked about his father finding racism in everything including breakfast cereal. That's what this reminds me of.

Even if their intentions were on the level, that a black woman just happened to be posed under the banter of "before" and a white woman under the banter of "after" does look very suspect. Whoever put together that photo should have caught the possible connotation before it went to print and done some last minute reediting, because to the passing eye it does seem to suggest that the black woman's skin is dirty and the white woman's skin is clean.

Chris wrote:

This ad is causing controversy. It features a black woman on the end labeled 'before,' a latin woman in the center, and a white woman on the other end labeled 'after.' The implication is that the black woman was dirty, the latin was cleaner (but not quite there), and the white woman was the end result of the wash.

What do you think?

http://gawker.com/5804724/dove-body-wash-strong-enough-to-turn-a-black-woman-white

Quote :

Dove Body Wash: Strong Enough to Turn a Black Woman White

Hamilton Nolan — Dove Body Wash: Strong Enough to Turn a Black Woman WhiteDove VisibleCare body wash: "Visibly more beautiful skin." Bye-bye black skin, hello white skin! (Scrub hard!) Can this ad possibly be real? Some people think it is! We've emailed Dove's representatives for confirmation, and we'll update with their reply. If real, this could be the most (unintentionally) racist skin care product ad in... about ten months.

UPDATE: It appears that the ad is real; commenters point out that the photo can be found on this Dove website, and others have told us they've seen it in magazines. We'll add any official response we receive from Dove.

UPDATE 2: We received the following statement from Edelman, Dove's PR firm:

"We believe that real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes, colors and ages and are committed to featuring realistic and attainable images of beauty in all our advertising. We are also dedicated to educating and encouraging all women and girls to build a positive relationship with beauty, to help raise self-esteem and to enable them to realize their full potential.

The ad is intended to illustrate the benefits of using Dove VisibleCare Body Wash, by making skin visibly more beautiful in just one week. All three women are intended to demonstrate the "after" product benefit. We do not condone any activity or imagery that intentionally insults any audience."

Okay, I don't know if this is racist or not (I mean obviously it can be seen that way, although I don't know if that was the intent of Dove at the time), but in reality THEY SHOULD HAVE FUCKING KNOWN BETTER! Who was the dumbass that allowed this ad to slip through the cracks? Who at Dove said "wow, what a great idea to have women of three different races represent our 'before and after' ad. Let's put the black woman on the left and the white woman on the right! Yeah, that'll be sweet!" They should be fired for dumbassery!

Maybe this wasn't intentionally racist on Dove's end, but it was a careless & stupid oversight.

Definitely not a well thought out ad!!!!! Don't think they intended it to be racist but the placement was not well thought out. Why not show all three women dirty and dishevelled in the before pic, then show the final one as the after pic?

The ad was set up all wrong. All 3 of them should have been placed over the "after" panel if they weren't trying to imply anything.