Dig deeper
Axe Body Spray built a brand by saturating teenage boys’ media feeds with a simple story:
spray our product on yourself, and flocks of beautiful, half-dressed women will chase you down the hallway.
Dove built a brand by celebrating the opposite—authenticity, vulnerability, self-acceptance.They told us to love our flaws, to see real beauty in imperfection.
People buy Dove and say, “Look how progressive they are. I can support that.”
People mock Axe and say, “How outdated, how toxic.”
But both are owned by the same company—Unilever.
The same boardroom that profits from women learning to love themselves also profits from teaching boys that women are prizes to be won.
That’s not hypocrisy; that’s business.
Because marketing doesn’t create values—it reflects them.
Every ad campaign is a mirror.
It shows us what we already believe, what we want to be true, what we’re willing to pay for.
When we cheer for Dove or cringe at Axe, we’re not just reacting to the brand.
We’re reacting to a version of ourselves staring back at us.
Marketing isn’t morality. It’s mirrors and levers.
Mirrors to show us who we think we are.
Levers to move us toward what we already desire.
The question isn’t whether a company is good or bad.
It’s whether we’re awake enough to see the system we’re part of—
and to choose what parts of ourselves we let it sell back to us.
Thank you Tony.
Comments
Post a Comment