evolution of Dove's Evolution

One piece I'm glad to see included in The One Show's "10 Best of the Digital Decade" is Dove's Evolution which some mistakenly believe was a TV spot that never aired. Actually, it's claimed to be the first branded viral video, posted on October 6, 2006. Within a month, it got 1.7 million views (big numbers in those days) and brought the highest-ever traffic spike to its website, three times more than Dove's Super Bowl spot and attendant publicity achieved, according to Ad Age. So I guess O+M Toronto is to blame for the ensuing onslaught of irksome client requests for a viral.

Years ago, I wondered if the creative team took inspiration from an old spot for Maybelline, but according to this interesting (if long-winded) discussion with Ogilvy folks about the campaign, it seems the concept evolved from an educational video the agency made in 2004 to expose students to the hype behind fashion.

on making a contribution

I've been thinking about El Joker's kind response to a post about the comparative social worth of our line of work versus that of, say, doctors.

On one part it's frustrating to not make a difference in the world and on the other, well at least I'm not being depended on to save a limb.

And what I'm thinking is: we DO make a difference, though it's easy to forget in the melee of dealing with deadlines and crazy clients. For better or worse we are the world's Culture Mongers, dispensing values and ways of life to aspire to, impacting boggling numbers of people around the globe, even in places where our campaign isn't running. (Like in rural China where Wilson tennis racket cases are coveted shoulder bags.)

Sure, one measly coupon insert or banner ad won't change the world, but we shouldn't forget that what we produce in the aggregate has a huge subliminal (and liminal) impact. Which is why stuff like Dove's Real Beauty campaign and Italian Vogue featuring non-white faces wields power beyond what research charts show, the power to (slowly but surely) right a wrong situation.

Of course, most of us don't get the opportunity to disseminate our own admirable values in a broadscale campaign that's ostensibly to push product. But we can make a difference, I believe, in seemingly small choices regarding casting or artwork or word choice in copy.

Now back to our regularly scheduled soapbox.

why people hate us

At a party recently, I met a woman who introduced herself as a Collections Manager for an art gallery. What does a Collections Manager do? I asked. She got a faraway look and began to elucidate: she puts her considerable art education to use by explaining the gallery's works to a collector, elaborating on a painting's influences, its origins, on what makes it remarkable, so that often the collector wants to take it home for himself. Like, buy it? I asked. Turns out she works on commission, and it took supreme self control for me not to remark on the similarity of our occupations. I knew that to do so would be an insult to her.

But why? Why is advertising one of the world's most reviled professions, one that in surveys, rates below even car dealers? We provide entertainment--often more entertainment than the content into which our stuff is embedded. We can't lie anymore, thanks to a labyrinth of consumer-protecting rules to which copy must comply. (Now, deceptive ads result in expensive lawsuits by entire cities.) And, in best case scenarios, what we do actually constitutes public education. (See Dove.)

But then, I'm knocked off my high horse by something like this. The Wall Street Journal discloses that Wacoal is introducing a girdle for men. The man-girdle is being advertised first in Japan (as if salarymen aren't already under enough pressure) not as a vanity product, but health-promoting. A statement from a doctor claims the underwear helps reduce body fat. It comes (of course) with a promotional DVD jam-packed with product benefits like how the girdle makes you take longer strides, helping you expend calories.

Between this and a scoop from Tangerine Toad alerting me to a SkyMall magazine ad hawking Gravity Defyer Shoes, I see there's still plenty to begrudge about advertising. No wonder I am reticent to disclose my profession in public, as when traveling abroad I sometimes lie about my country of origin (um, I'm from Canada) so as not to elicit in strangers feelings of undue contempt.

old ideas never die, they just get recycled

As a mother of girls, I love what the Dove Campaign says about women and admire that a packaged goods client was convinced to do something breakthrough. But I wonder if the team who came up with the creative could possibly have been inspired by the 1984 D&AD annual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U