Dove’s new ad campaign for the ‘real man’

So now it’s the boys turn. Unilever has extended its Dove range into the male grooming market called Dove Men + Care.

Along with it, it has launched its new advert – similar to the approach used for the women’s campaign. The brand was built upon the Campaign for Real Beauty concept. Across the media – we saw ‘real women’, who didn’t have absurdly wobbly and bobbly bits but weren’t stick thin statues either.

Unilever’s marketing director for home and personal care in the UK, Matt Close has said that 75 per cent of men find it difficult to identify with then men they see in adverts, and feel stereotyped and misrepresented; only three per cent strongly agree that they are realistically portrayed.

The target market for the new Dove line are guys who are comfortable with who they are, and where they’re at in their lives and don’t relate to the heavy emphasis on power, celebrity.

Colin Hession, managing director of Colin Hession Consulting, told Marketing Week: “At last it seems Unilever is having a proper go at building on the unique position it has created in the male grooming category with Axe {Lynx in the UK}. If it works, Axe users will no longer have to graduate to the opposition, Nivea Men, L’Oréal Men Expert or Gillette when they grow up.”

The advert, which was shown to a hundred million viewers in the US during the Superbowl at the weekend, is coming to the UK and will star real men. It pokes fun at the midlife male condition. The ad’s to the tune of The Lone Ranger theme with the message: “You’ve reached a stage where you feel at ease. You’ve come this far and it wasn’t a breeze. You can take on anything of course you can! Because you’re a MAN!”

It’s not a great ad by Ogilvy. I agree with Claire Beale, when she says the brief is far too obvious, especially for a UK audience. But, it’s getting a message out there isn’t it? It’s saying that you don’t have to be a buffed-up Spartan to look good and feel great in this world. Surely, taking the light approach make it a pleasant intermission?

It must be noted – men just don’t care about the way that they are portrayed in the media as much as women. Just because they don’t relate to it doesn’t equate that they are disturbed by it. In actual fact, they don’t consider it to be as important as other factors. Unilever’s own research has found that only one per cent of men think that their physique is their most attractive asset – personality and humour are considered to be more important.