It's a good thing women are stronger than marketers would have
us believe.
Judging by recent efforts from marketers to empower women, it's
a wonder that the U.S. and similar countries can function at all.
If those ads are any guide, girls and women are such a collective
mass of insecurities, self-loathing and psychological wounds, I'm
not sure how they make it out of the door in the morning.
The answer probably has something to do with the basic
resilience of the human spirit, but that's neither here nor
there.
We're here to sell soap, folks. Literally in some of these
cases. And the question is do these efforts work? Yes! More than
likely. Depending on how many coupons are dropped at the same time
a video goes viral. It's hard to tell, really.
Some say marketing is creating a need and then filling it. Some
would say that's a cynical interpretation of the craft.
But not as cynical as, just to pick a random example, a massive
packaged goods company using one massive brand to lead a charge
against the use of photoshop and overly-skinny models to set
unrealistic ideals of beauty for women, while at the same time
marketing another brand that all but promises young men that those
exact same unrealistic women will throw themselves at them
(literally) if only said young men use enough body spray.
That company is Unilever, obviously.
Considering all the accolades the company's decade-old "Real
Beauty" efforts for Dove have received, it may seem contrarian to
come along at this stage and criticize. As a matter of fact, I
liked the early work for Dove. It was touching and touched a nerve.
But the company completely lost me with the last effort, in which
women were told they'd be wearing a magic pharmaceutical patch that
would make them better somehow. It made Facebook's recent
experiment look like child's play. The company came off as
manipulative
and it made the women look gullible and downright desperate --
something advertising should never do.
And Procter & Gamble's Pantene. Pantene's first foray was a
feminist-themed effort in the Philippines. (Facebook's Sheryl
Sandberg liked it so much she almost single-handedly
convinced the company to bring it stateside. And it could be
seen as the parent of the Facebook COO's "Ban Bossy" movement,
which sounded like something created by the comedy team that
brought you Things White People Like, First-World Problems and
Drunk History -- with just a dash of thought police thrown in.)
More recently, Pantene launched a video state-side to tell women
to quit apologizing for things. (Though, like "Ban Bossy," it can
be argued that the "sorry" phenomenon isn't gender specific; I, for
one, have said "sorry" in all of those situations. Then again, I
used to use a lot of Pantene, so maybe it seeped into my
scalp.)
That's not to say this isn't smart marketing. It's pretty
brilliant, actually -- with the exception of Dove's most recent
iteration of "Real Beauty" and Verizon's seemingly random decision
to jump in on the craze.
After all, now that most of Western society knows that it
needs to stay clean and needs soap to do so, how do you
sell more of it? By making emotional plays such as these, by
turning to cause marketing or something that feels like it. Or, to
put it in extremely cynical terms, tell otherwise successful and
secure women that they're being victimized and then rush in to save
them.
Incidentally, these campaigns are also hard to criticize. To do
so makes you a jerk -- whether it be of the misogynistic,
anti-capitalist or ultra-feminist-who's-never-happy stripe is
irrelevant. Heck, despite P&G being 10 years late to this game,
it seems impolite to say it's blatantly copying Unilever.
I like "Like a Girl." Why? It doesn't simply state its case, it
makes it. "Like a girl" is clearly an insult -- unlike the word
"bossy," which
isn't necessarily a gendered insult (or even an insult). I can
say from experience as a boy child and as a man adult, that every
time I've used the phrase it's been directed at another guy and
it's meant to imply inferiority. Run like a girl. Cry like a girl.
Scream like a girl. In other words, you're weak like a girl.
But the Always video doesn't dwell on lunk-headed men hurling
insults at each other or little boys picking on little girls.
Rather, it brilliantly sets up two groups of people.
Pre-adolescent girls -- and the rest of the world. Ask a young girl
how to run or throw like a girl and she, get this, runs or throws.
Period. She gives it her all. Ask a young boy how to run like a
girl and you know what you're going to get. But what really makes
the video is when women are asked to perform these tasks like a
girl. Somewhere between girlhood and womanhood, it turns out,
they've internalized the boys' idea of throwing and running and
hitting like a girl, mockingly flopping their hands and legs.
It's an eye opener -- which is something you don't often get in
advertising of any kind. It made me -- 21st century, non-PC male
born and raised in the South -- reconsider my own word choices.
The video, directed by Lauren Greenfield, Sundance Film Festival
award-winning creator of "The Queen of Versailles,"
has gone viral, of course. It showed up in my Facebook feed
after being picked up by a pet blog of all things. Always has
created a
site that goes into more detail and allows people to "join the
movement."
All of this is smartly targeted, as well. Always would like to
reach young women having their first period and/or their moms --
especially since the first brand settled upon in this category
tends to be the last brand settled upon. A message such as this is
appealing to both mom and daughter -- and probably dad as well.
And it's squarely on brand.
Let's be crystal clear here. Whatever else "Like a Girl" is,
it's a sales pitch. Just like Unilever's effort to sell more Dove
and Verizon's attempt to sell whatever it is it's trying to
sell.
This touching, emotional, extremely viral campaign's main reason
for being is to sell more panty liners. That's its job.
Ken is only about half as mean as his photo indicates. Short, to-the-point e-mail queries are appreciated. Read the site and recent issues before pitching.