Is 3 seconds too long for an ad? The Dove outrage edition.
You probably heard about it. It certainly looked bad. That Dove ad that seemed to equate cleaning yourself with turning your black skin white.
Seriously, it looked really bad.
Outrage ensued as per the normal cycle. Social media posts with screengrabs were the driving force:
Quick question before we dive in— did you see the original ad?
Okay, back to your regularly scheduled outrage:
Mainstream publications took over, with the the NY Times and CNBC quickly taking the opportunity to assemble a history of racist advertising:
Advertising trade publications like AdWeek made sure to position the catastrophe as a symptom of a lack of hiring diversity:
Dove appeared to do the right thing by promptly apologizing about “missing the mark” and removing the ad from Facebook:
I had seen the original ad circulating originally, but by yesterday afternoon it seemed to be wiped clean from the internet (Dove had taken down the official version). As you might’ve noticed above, the original ad was 3 seconds long and had a black woman transition to a white woman who transitioned to a brown woman. Based on the normal Facebook format, I’m assuming it was supposed to run as a loop.
Was the ad really that bad? Were the screengrabs accurately reflecting the nature of the ad? The full ad appears at worst, mildly tone-deaf. At best, it’s another weak attempt at a big brand trying to be #woke.
Again:
I spoke to a number of friends in media and advertising — every single one heard of the controversy, and most had an opinion. None had seen the original, only having seen the screengrabs.
The ad is 3 seconds long, yet our collective attention spans were apparently too short to watch the entire thing before getting angry. Can we not even watch a 3 second ad before passing judgement?
I’m curious whether readers of this post feel the ad, in full, was worthy of the backlash. Also, what was the right response from Dove? Were they correct to apologize right away and not emphasize the nature of the original ad? Is a genuine conversation around this even possible? What is the right conversation to be having?
If racial justice is the goal, is this really the best way to spend our precious currency of outrage? The same way our attention is finite, so is our outrage. We only can afford to budget a certain amount, and most of us are already approaching bankruptcy.
Focus on what matters, watch the entire 3 second ad, remember that the only one who wins in these scenarios is click-based media, take a deep breath, and get back to the work that needs to be done.
