In 2017, personal skin care brand Dove launched a PR video aimed at increasing sales of shower gel. The video featured a black woman taking off her T-shirt and after this action “transforming” into a white woman. The target audience considered the video racist and was outraged. Dove quickly removed the unsuccessful ad, although many users managed to take screenshots.
Racist Ad by Dove
The Dove shower gel marketing project is an example of a product campaign that is doomed to fail. But the worst part is that it is not the first time the brand has been accused physician database of supporting racist ideology. The 2011 ad had a similar plot: three women of different skin tones showed off their bodies against a background of text, with the dark-skinned woman being labeled “before” using Dove products, and the light-skinned woman being labeled “after.” The company apologized, but the gaffe damaged the brand’s image. Political commentator Kate Boykin summed up the failed marketing campaign on Twitter: “One racist ad is suspect. Two racist ads prove you guilty.”
Kony 2012
In 2004, college students Bobby Bailey, Jason Russell, and Laren Poole founded the charity Invisible Children. They wanted to raise awareness about Ugandan militant Joseph Kony and the atrocities his Divine Resistance Army (LRA) was committing in Central Africa. The short film Kony 2012 became the basis for the digital project Invisible Children. Its creators were confident that the world community did not know about Joseph Kony and his criminal activities in Central Africa. The founders' goal was to spread information and capture the leader of the Divine Resistance Army within a year.
At first, the film "Koni 2012" got a million likes on YouTube and was considered the most successful video project. But after some time, another video was posted on the channel, in which one of the creators of "Invisible Children", Jason Russell, behaved indecently in a public place. This act caused a wave of indignation towards him. At the very beginning of the film "Koni 2012", the viewer sees Russell's family and the first years of his child's life. The main idea of the advertising campaign is an example of humanism: "to allow my son to grow up in a better world than the one I grew up in." After the scandalous video, this causes confusion.
Jason Russell clearly positions himself as a “white savior,” he reflects everything that is happening in Central Africa through the prism of his perception. He and his comrades in good cause are given more screen time than the people they are supposedly trying to save. And although the film sounds dramatic music and the authors demonstrate incredible emotion, it remains a mystery to viewers what exactly Jason Russell and his like-minded people wanted to achieve with the help of digital marketing.
Many Ugandans were outraged by the documentary's misrepresentation of events, which they said oversimplified geopolitical events. In addition, Joseph Kony had fled Uganda six years before the film was released. The leader of the Divine Army was never arrested and died of coronavirus in January 2021.
Examples of successful advertising campaigns once again confirm that the effectiveness and efficiency of any marketing project directly depends on the quality of the preparatory stage. All unrivaled in their genius PR solutions were carefully thought out and planned, developed on the basis of large-scale research, and experienced designers were involved in the preparation of materials. Involving real advertising professionals is a guarantee of an excellent result and an opportunity to avoid failure.