This case discusses the rapid growth of the now controversial “positive body image” promotional strategy, that some have suggested is “genderwashing,” whereby firms may engage with progressive gender and race issues in one brand’s promotional campaign while creating perceived contrary campaigns with that of other brands or campaigns that don’t seem to fit the body positive narrative. Specifically, this case examines the Dove Real Beauty campaign in conjunction with that of Axe Body Spray and Fair Lovely (all brands owned by Unilever) from a conceptual perspective. A conceptual model of a genderwashing is offered and potential managerial implications are articulated whereby it is posited that these campaigns can lead to consumer cynicism and a desire to cease purchases.
Type of Material:
Case Study
Recommended Uses:
Use as homework
Outside reading
Could use for class discussion
Use for small group discussion
Student presentation in class
Technical Requirements:
Used Chrome
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Understand concept of gender washing
Understand concepts of commodity feminism and consumer feminism
Learn about corporate social responsibility
Realize that promotional strategy can perhaps have unintended negative consequences.
Target Student Population:
College Upper Division, Graduate School
Marketing students
Advertising students
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
A course in Marketing Principles, at minimum, would be necessary in clarifying some of the terminology and rationale.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Discusses a promotional strategy that began in 2004, but it remains relevant even 15 years later.
Highlights a number of issues that can readily be explored in a promotions class
Is well-researched to include examples, statistics, and supportive quotations to highlight the varying points.
Module is easily adaptable to a number of classroom uses
Is short enough (but thorough enough) to provide ample material for discussion, either verbal or written.
Authors have taken great care to illustrate the context of the Dove campaign over the years
Endeavors to present both positive and negative aspects of it.
Concerns:
Did not include primary research to advance understanding in the field.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Content in this module is nicely formatted with topic headers and drop-down buttons
Easy to maneuver among focal areas and overall interesting to read.
Content provides good fodder for discussion
Discussion questions included with the module, making this a self-contained assignment
The module does include links to additional documents for teaching a case study should the instructor need them.
Students would be able to receive a decent overview of the Dove promotional strategy, with pros and cons, and obtain a good sense of the criticisms and core concerns of using a similar approach.
Although Dove is the highlighted company, students should be able to extrapolate the points to modern-day campaigns which would increase the relevance.
Concerns:
The module does not identify objectives or prerequisite knowledge, and while it does provide the necessary definitional information to aid in understanding
Instructors may find that they need to offer additional structure in preparation for the discussion (depending on the course/student level in which it’s utilized).
There are only a few discussion questions provided, so others may need to be written.
There are a few links to the Dove campaign by way of examples, however instructors may wish to include YouTube (or other) links to better help students obtain an overall impression of the campaign.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Easily accessible with an Internet browser, and as such is portable and able to be used on multiple devices.
Content is engaging as formatted
Great maneuverability to locate content/points
Word usage is understandable for most college-level audiences.
With embedded discussion questions, the assignment is self-contained
Highlights the key considerations of the case.
Concerns:
Case is very text-heavy
Content could benefit from providing additional links to those examples discussed beyond the two provided. This would likely increase both interactivity and visual understanding of the topics, particularly for students who were quite young when the campaign began to surface.
Creative Commons:
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