Several weeks ago I read Ronni Bennet's article, N*ked Older Women, about the Dove Pro Age ads on TV. I wanted to comment, but was pressed for time, so filed it away in the dumpster known as my memory, to be responded to or blogged about later.
Shortly afterwards, I saw the aforementioned ads on TV. I was impressed. They were beautiful and tastefully done. And yes, the women were naked. "Well", I thought, "At last advertisers are getting the fact that women aren't all twenty-something, anorexic, smooth-skinned, flawless models. They're showing what real older women of different shapes, sizes and colours look like. They're celebrating it in fact. Hallelujah!"
I wanted to give props to Dove, despite the fact that it still is an advertising campaign, after all, and meant to sell product. A few weeks passed.
Fast forward to today. I finally decided to put some of my thoughts about Dove's pro-age ads in my blog. I did a little Googling to refresh my memory and to my utter dismay and absolute disgust, I found out that these tasteful ads have been banned from US television because of the nudity.
What gives? It's okay to show sexually explicit music videos, simulated sex scenes, violence and gore on primetime TV, but it's deemed offensive to show an advertisement celebrating women's bodies. I don't get it. They are very modest (no frontal nudity, you don't even see breasts except from the side).
It's still being shown here in Canada and, I assume, other countries. But not in the US. Apparently, various groups objected to the nudity, some even proposing a boycott of Dove. It's enough to make me want to go out and buy the entire line of products.
Judge for yourself. You can watch the ad on Dove's website. There's even a discussion forum to add comments.
Here it is: Pro-Age Dove
Coffee and sketching in Shrewsbury
3 weeks ago
4 comments:
I can't see why they should ban it, but you can't really judge anything by what they do in the US. I haven't seen it in Denmark yet though, but I can't see anyone objecting to it.
I like that it's appears to be an honest commercial. But it also reflects a change that appears to be happening, or that I at least hope is happening. People are becoming more interest in what is natural. We don't want supermodels too skinny. Perhaps we are getting a bit tired of being surrounded by fake all the time.
I'd like to see people in general, (and women specifically) be okay with how they look and not feel compelled to conform to an unrealistic "ideal" that's only achievable by a minuscule percentage of the population. People have botoxed, peeled, nipped, and tucked themselves into plastic caricatures of themselves.
It's abonormal not to develop wrinkles and it's wierd to see people in their 50s and 60s with faces smoother than a ten year-old's.
I saw the women who modeled with their photos on Oprah and didn't realize the commercials had been banned even though I wondered why I haven't seen them except in magazines. Hypocrisy is alive and well here in the US. Oprah did a show about these women as well as the first ones in the Dove ads.
I hope that more women will accept themselves and rejoice in their lives, faces, and bodies without altering themselves out of recognition. I've given up on men realizing how they look since they use the "man mirror" and see themselves as younger and hotter than they ever were.
Women over age 50 are beautifull!
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