In marketing terms at least, there are few who could argue against the power of Dove’s Iconic ‘Real Beauty’ strategy, which was launched 20 years ago this week by Unilever, with the multi-award winning campaign positioning the brand as one with a social and environmental ‘purpose’.
However, while the marketing plaudits continue to roll in, it is Unilever’s environmental record which continues to irk many. None more so than Greenpeace, which this week is launching a new film to mark the 20th anniversary of the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign.
Directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Alice Russell (If The Streets Were On Fire), the film offers a devastating rebuke to the hypocrisy of the mega-brand and the harmful impacts of the plastic pollution pumped out by the soap-maker and its parent company.
The hard-hitting film is designed as a subversion of the acclaimed 2022 Ogilvy-produced Dove video ‘Toxic Influence’.
Mirroring the original, it features pairs of mothers and daughters in conversation. The pairs begin by discussing their positive reactions to Dove’s marketing, before the true scale of the brand’s plastic waste and its devastating impacts are revealed – bringing with it strong feelings of shock and revulsion. Russell was joined by Anna Wells as producer (Wasteminster) and Sarah Cunningham as director of photography.
The release of the film comes a week after Greenpeace activists shut down the entrances to Unilever’s HQ in Central London, locking themselves onto barricades made to look like giant Dove products. Climbers unfurled a giant banner across the building’s facade bearing the message ‘Real Beauty isn’t this toxic’ and calling on Dove to ditch plastic.
A Greenpeace International report released late last claimed Unilever sells the equivalent of 1,700 super-polluting plastic sachets per second. An estimated 6.4 billion sachets were produced by Dove alone in 2022, making up over 10% of Unilever’s total sachets sales. A field investigation by Greenpeace South East Asia and Greenpeace UK revealed images of Dove’s sachet waste polluting beaches and waterways in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Greenpeace is calling on Dove and Unilever to phase-out single-use plastic from its operations and transition to reuse in the next 10 years, starting with the plastic sachets. The organisation is also calling on the company to advocate for this same level of ambition at the next round of negotiations on a UN Global Plastics Treaty when it attends as co-chair of the Business Coalition in November.
Greenpeace UK campaigner Anna Diski said: “This powerful film shows the genuine human reaction to the hypocrisy which seeps through Dove and its slick marketing. It’s a reaction which should worry the brand – the women and girls they claim to champion won’t put up with it and want Dove to change.
“They know there’s no Real Beauty in the real harm caused by Dove’s plastic pollution. They can’t keep flooding the world with unimaginable amounts of harmful plastic. That’s why Dove must stop selling plastic sachets now and commit to phasing out single-use plastic within a decade.”
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office?
Well, long gone are the days when groups like Greenpeace were seen as cranks and their environmental concerns viewed as hippy nonsense. This is a powerful yet subtle film which is a much needed reminder that, behind all the great marketing and advertising, there must be action to not harm the planet.
Many in the industry have at least accepted that “mass consumerism” is affecting us all and many major brands have taken steps to stop using plastic. So, what’s your excuse Unilever?
Decision Marketing Adometer: A ‘time for action’ 10 out of 10
