Dove and Axe:
Examples of Hypocrisy or Good Marketing?
Images taken from www.unilever.com
Purpose of Case Study
To Discuss:
• How key publics can interpret messages
differently.
• What ethical responsibility, if any, exists for a
company to ensure its brands send noncontradictory messages.
• Whether the use of viral marketing impacts this
ethical responsibility.
• What extent a company should make sure its
corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages
permeate across all brands.
Outline of Discussion
• Overview of the issue
• Unilever at the corporate level
– Its stance on CSR
– Its management structure
• Unilever and the relationship between Dove and Axe
• Different marketing messages:
– Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty
– Axe’s “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” campaign
• Viral tactics used by both brands
• Discussion questions
The Issue
• First week of October, 2007: Dove releases
“Onslaught,” challenging parents to “Talk to you
daughter before the beauty industry does”
• October 9, 2007: The Campaign for a Commercial Free
Childhood (CCFC) alleges hypocrisy on behalf of
Unilever, highlighting the different tone of messages
from Dove and Axe
• October - December: The issue is covered in blogs,
trade publications and newspapers, while Unilever
maintains the Axe ads are only a spoof and should be
received in that way
Unilever at the Corporate Level
• Its mission, “To add vitality to life,” impacts:
– The products it develops
– The way in which it interacts with:
• People
• Communities
• The environment
• Its overall goal: “To help people look good, feel good
and get more out of life.”
Unilever at the Corporate Level
Unilever’s leadership on its commitment to corporate
social responsibility:
“When we talk about corporate social responsibility, we
don’t see it as something we ‘do’ to society. It is inherent
in everything we do. Not just voluntary philanthropy or
community investment, important though that is, but the
impact of our operations and products as well as the
interactions we have with the societies we serve.”
-Niall Fitzgerald, former Unilever chairman, 2003
Unilever at the Corporate Level
Unilever’s leadership on its commitment to corporate
social responsibility (cont’d):
“[Corporate responsibility] isn’t philanthropy, it’s
business…it’s about creating social benefits through our
brands and through our interactions as a business with
society.”
- Patrick Cescau, Unilever CEO, 2006
Unilever at the Corporate Level
Management Structure:
• Brands are managed according to both product category and
region
– Regional leaders are responsible for:
• Deploying brands and innovation
• Managing the business
• Interfacing with customers
– Product category leaders are responsible for:
• Brand development
• Innovation
• Research/development
• Advertising/marketing functions exist at both the brand and
corporate levels
Unilever at the Corporate Level
Marketing Practices:
• While marketing activities for each brand are subject to
corporate guidelines, Unilever recognizes each brand
may target a different group and communicate in a
different way.
• Unilever points to Dove and Axe as examples of this
balance, noting they both support its vitality mission
while addressing the needs of two different groups.
The Campaign for Real Beauty
• Based on national and international research on
women’s perceptions of beauty
– International Statistics: Only 2% of women feel comfortable
describing themselves as beautiful, while 31% describe
themselves as natural and 29% as average
– National Statistics: U.S. women are more willing to rate their
looks higher than their beauty, but 79% wish a woman could be
considered beautiful if she is not “physically perfect”
• Developed around these statistics to improve the
worldwide understanding of “real beauty”
The Campaign for Real Beauty
• 2004: The Campaign asked women to judge ads using
non-professional models as “oversized,” “outstanding,”
“wrinkled”or “wonderful” and then place their vote on its
website.
• 2005: Ads challenged women to “Stand firm to celebrate
their curves” by showing six women of differing ages,
shapes and sizes photographed in their underwear.
The Campaign for Real Beauty
• 2006: The “Evolution” video uses time-lapse
photography to illustrate how much a model’s natural
appearance has likely been modified in an
advertisement
Images taken from “Evolution,” available at http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/dsef07/t5.aspx?id=7373&filmno=1
The Campaign for Real Beauty
• 2007: The “Onslaught” video
provides a montage of beauty
industry images, including a
multitude of products and
cosmetic surgeries, as viewed
through the eyes of a young
girl.
The video challenges parents
to “Talk to your daughter
before the beauty industry
does.”
Image from “Onslaught,” available at http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/dsef07/t5.aspx?id=7373&filmno=0
Axe and “Bom Chicka Wah Wah”
Advertising/marketing communications from Axe…
• Rely on the theme of “Giving guys the edge in the
mating game.”
• Utilize suggestive language in describing products by
– Referring to Axe’s 9 scents as “the 9 ways.”
– Suggesting men use the Clix scent “because the
mating game is all about amazing figures. Spray on,
sit back and count you clicks.”
Axe and “Bom Chicka Wah Wah”
Advertising/marketing communications from Axe…
• Assert Axe products create the “Axe Effect,” which its website
describes as an…
“Internationally recognized name for the increased
attention Axe-wearing males receive from eager, and
attractive, female pursuers…Regardless of where you live,
you can ‘get you some’ Axe effect by going to a store near
you.”
Axe and “Bom Chicka Wah Wah”
The “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” Campaign
• References a musical sound popular in 1970s pornographic
videos
• Understood as a pop-culture term for a “sexual encounter”
• Features four girls
named Bom, Chicka,
Wah and Wah,
supposedly in a
1970s style rock
band
Axe and “Bom Chicka Wah Wah”
The “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” Campaign
• Commercials: Five commercials depict young, attractive
women who spontaneously blurt “bom chicka wah wah”
when they encounter a man wearing an Axe scent
• Website:
– The “In Your Area” section includes a map of the United
States where viewers can “Choose a hotspot…and
watch women across the country loose their inhibitions,
their minds…and often their clothes.”
– The “Watch the Video” section features a music video of
the “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” band singing lyrics like
“your libido’s in control, surrender to the mist.”
Viral Tactics from Both Brands
Campaign for Real Beauty
• The website provides:
– A variety of materials that can be forwarded to friends,
including:
• Self-esteem development materials for young girls
• Self-esteem training materials for moms and mentors
• Campaign videos
• Online discussion boards
– An opportunity to contribute to the Self-Esteem fund or
forward a request to someone else
Viral Tactics from Both Brands
Campaign for Real Beauty
• Viral Videos (available on both the website and YouTube):
– Evolution
• Generated over 12 million YouTube views in its first
year
• Provided an estimated $150 million in free publicity
– Onslaught
• Viewed over 500,000 times in its first month and over
1 million times in its first 3 months
Viral Tactics from Both Brands
Axe
• Received millions of views from its “Axe Effect” videos as
they were forwarded by email when the brand launched in
the United States.
• Created a video-sharing campaign on the Boost Hookst
mobile network to launch its “Naughty to Nice” promotion.
• Provided online games and downloadable promotions with
its “Axe Efffect,” “Naughty to Nice” and “Bom Chicka Wah
Wah” campaigns.
Discussion Questions
1. How much does Unilever’s commitment to social
responsibility among all its brands impact any
responsibility it has to ensure they do not use
contradictory messages?
2. Could the brands be positioned in a way that sill respects
their target audiences while also respecting each other’s
ideals?
Discussion Questions
3. Does Unilever’s corporate structure, which oversees the
marketing activities of all brands and prohibits any one
from operating with complete independence, make it
more accountable for ensuring brand communications do
not contradict?
4. Do Axe’s marketing messages, in which young, thin,
attractive girls find any man who wears an Axe scent to
be sexually attractive, make those of the Campaign for
Real Beauty seem less truthful?
Discussion Questions
5. To what extent should Axe’s “Bom Chicka Wah Wah”
campaign, along with its others marketing messages, just
be considered spoofs of the male approach to dating?
Should the CCFC’s hypocritical assessment of Dove and
Unilever be any different even if the ads are only intended
as jokes? If so, how?
6. How, if at all, does the viral nature of both the Dove and
Axe campaigns impact any responsibility Unilever has to
ensure its communications messages are not
contradictory?
Discussion Questions
7. Would the validity of the CCFC’s hypocrisy claim be any
different if both brands used either paid advertising spots
or non-viral public relations tactics to send their
messages?
8. To what extent should the CSR element of Dove’s
message, which relates directly to important issues of
self-esteem and self-worth for women, influence any
responsibility Unilever might have to ensure its other
brands do not contradict these messages?