Monday 9 April 2012

Dove Soap Promotes Female Self-Esteem With Keffiyehs

Is Dove soap surreptitiously doing a Lush?

It's launched a television ad which is also on YouTube with introduction as follows:
Watch our latest Dove TV advert which talks about our progress with the Dove Self-Esteem Programme and why we're investing a minimum of £250,000 this year (2012) to help bring self-esteem education to young people across the UK. Find out more on https://www.facebook.com/dove
 In this ad two of the young girls are wearing keffiyehs.

That's no way to win friends and influence people. at least those of us who know what  the keffiyeh, when worn by Westerners, symbolises: the campaign against Israel.

The question is: do the folk at Dove realise it too?

The person who alerted me to the ad says:
"I am shocked that they let two of their child actresses make a political statement wearing keffiyehs in the ad. What were they thinking of? "
Indeed.

19 comments:

  1. I just threw my last bar of dove soap in the bin. It has suddenly started to cause me an allergy.

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    1. Imperial Leather lasts longer!

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  2. Are you sure that is supposed to be a keffiyeh? It looks more like a scarf to me...but then, I'm not a fashionista....

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    1. It's not black and white or red and white, but it's certainly in the keffiyeh style. Perhaps less ambiguous is one that appears a few frames on in the video.
      I've since noticed that Dove makes a deodorant with Dead Sea minerals, so it could, and hopefully is, be an honest mistake.

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    2. I did some digging at my local, public library and learned that Unilever is Dove's parent company which is actually comprised of two companies (Unilever N.V. and Unilever PLC) - one Dutch and one British. The company is trying to make inroads in its hair care products into countries that are not friendly to Israel and include: China, Russia, the Americas, Africa and Brazil.

      The companies portfolio is vast and includes a wide array of consumer goods. Some of which are big brands in the USA:
      Hellmans mayonnaise
      Knorr soups
      Lipton tea and more

      Contact info:

      Address:
      Unilever House, 100 Victoria Embankment
      London EC4Y 0DY
      United Kingdom
      Phone: +44 2078225252
      Fax: +44 2078225951

      Board of Directors:

      Nyasulu, Hixonia
      Golden, Charles E.
      Walsh, Paul S.
      Fudge, Ann M.
      Treschow, Michael
      Fresco, Louise
      Mittal, Sunil Bharti
      Storm, Kornelis J.
      Rifkind, Malcolm
      Grote, Byron E.

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    3. Thanks for all that. Malcolm Rifkind is a former Foreign Secretary. He's Jewish and a Conservative. So that's reassuring.

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  3. I had to search for the ad as your link didn't come up

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElKFK6rRHNY


    However 2 of the girls are wearing keffiyehs for sure, but I bet it's not a deliberate thing by the people who made the ads.

    The kids probably don't even know what they are. I quite frequently ask people why they support terrorism when I see them being worn and the people in question, in the main, are not aware of that fact. They bought a scarf. They are sold all over the place now.

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    1. I know, and some are as cheap as chips and look it.

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  4. Not the first time something like this has come up. In 2008, Rachael Ray was spotted in an ad for Dunkin Donuts wearing a suspiciously keffiyeh-like scarf. The ad was quickly pulled, though not before a lot of hot air was expended by various groups and individuals trying to minimize the the affair and complain about the Donut company pulling the ad. Not much about this since.

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    1. Next time the child in the ad will be wearing a burqa. They will claim that Dove Soap is good for your hands.

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    2. LOL! Nice one!

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  5. The first keffiyeh-style scarf comes in at a significant moment. Pause the video and study

    The second one not so much. Neither girl is obviously Middle-Eastern. I think that 'Shirl in Oz' has hit the nail on the head. There is now an Israeli 'keffiyeh', but it's a bit confusing.

    I'm going with fashion and an honest mistake.

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  6. I'm watching an "Inspector Lewis" and one of the characters, an Oxford student, is wearing one. Not being British I'm not sure what subliminal cue they're working at.

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    1. That seems realistic enough, unfortunately.

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  7. Unilever is a company that profits from skin whitening products and creates the Lynx/Axe adverts, they’re the last people to preach about self esteem especially to children.

    Oh dear. They take jobs away from Palestinian Arabs as well.
    BDS Success: Unilever to Move Factory out of West Bank
    http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/economy-of-the-occupation/2916-bds-success-unilever-to-move-factory-out-of-west-bank

    That said it’s not as bad as this from 2008.
    Dunkin' Donuts Pulls Rachael Ray Ad Over 'Terror' Symbolism
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,359501,00.html

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  8. Today's fashion statement is tomorrow's tablecloth.

    The irony is that when I was a late teen it used to be an Australian Jewish tradition to go on 'Academy' trip to Israel after the HSC or first year uni. Everyone would return with a keffiya purchased in the Old City shuk. If I saw someone wearing one I'd go over to chat confident it would be a fellow Yid.

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  9. This whole affair has brought back another memory. Back in the day (mid 1970s) I needed a job, any job, and my cousin's uncle, who was chief quality control officer at Lever and Kitchen's (now Unilever Australasia) margarine factory in Balmain found me a place on the assembly line. All was fine with German featured, Strine-speaking me and my workmates, who were all Arabs until the QC people came around and my 'mispocha' asked me in a manner that was clear that he knew me, how I was getting on.

    From that moment the line was convinced that a) I was Jewish (correctly) and that I was b) the QC officer's son (incorrectly). They would then inevitably tell me unconfirmable stories about their P.L.O. terrorist activities in Israel which I didn't take too seriously.

    I guess that must be Allah's idea of a good joke to send them about as far away Palestine as it was possible to spend the rest of their lives pouring greasy yellow goo into plastic tubs and taking orders from a Jew.

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    1. Thanks for taking the trouble to post these interesting comments, deegee.

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