Wow, the year is 2017 and Dove is really out here quite literally whitewashing women of color in their ads. A photo posted by @Naythemua went massively viral on Friday, infuriating Twitter and the entire world at large. It shows a black woman peeling a brown shirt over her head to reveal a white woman wearing a tan shirt underneath.
So I'm scrolling through Facebook and this is the #dove ad that comes up…. ok so what am I looking at….Goodmorning…
Posted by Naythemua on Friday, October 6, 2017
The ad then changes to this girl:
Posted by Naythemua on Friday, October 6, 2017
The ad itself is enough to make your jaw drop—And yet Dove managed to miss the mark even further with their apology. Naturally, social media was outraged. And for good reason. The fact that nobody— NOBODY— in the entire process of ad ideation, production, and the numerous insane levels of approval—NOT ONE PERSON noticed how racist this image and the inherent message were?
It’s incredible. If you’ve ever even dipped a toe in advertising, (unless you’re working for a small self-contained company) you know that it is a giant machine with tons of moving parts that takes each cool idea and strips it of anything fun or remotely interesting because it goes through one million stages of approval. It makes you wonder what the original idea behind this ad was, (certainly nothing fun or cool) and how not one person who saw it realized it was completely gross. Makes you wonder— Hey, Dove, is there even one single person of color in your entire massive corporation?
WAIT WAIT WAIT!!! HOW DID THIS LEAVE THE WHITEBOARD?!?! pic.twitter.com/3JaPKoMOPZ
— ✨Odion ?? (@bodaciousbobo) October 8, 2017
Wtf this suppose to mean @dove pic.twitter.com/dGldXWicJf
— Arianna Models (@AriannaModels) October 7, 2017
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 marketing execs approving that racist ad pic.twitter.com/JNu0zvha9w
— Laura Dowrich (@ldowrich) October 8, 2017
"Alright Dove team, we need an ad that'll get everyone's attention!"
Brad: "I got an idea…"
*two weeks later* pic.twitter.com/vDSKUK3rot
— Spooky X (@XLNB) October 8, 2017
Lol did this even look right to y'all? I mean your whole team sat down and cleared this bullshit right here? How? pic.twitter.com/WzsZfpkxAr
— Musimbwa (@UNcubeOthungayo) October 7, 2017
Any black business sell soap?? Dove made it clear they only want white ppl using their products, I'm cool with that
— Sad Pitt (@Bbillions) October 8, 2017
#BoycottDove because like other major comestics brands they think being black is undesirable and dirty.
— Kelechi Okafor (@kelechnekoff) October 8, 2017
I see no difference, @Dove. pic.twitter.com/DbkrrNQMjS
— Gennette Cordova (@GNCordova) October 8, 2017
the racist dove ad is a continuation of a long history of racist soap advertising pic.twitter.com/nO7iDT7dxH
— /kaw·reɪdʒ/ (@kawrage) October 8, 2017