Dove Ad Banned??!!

Posted October 3, 2007, 11:05 pm in Living by Marc Middleton


You gotta be kidding me. The FCC has banned Dove's revolutionary and provocative ProAge TV commercial in which, six over-50 women pose seminude in a dignified and non-sexual manner.

The commercial, a beautiful and sensitive portrayal of the bodies of real middle age women has been banned in the US because it "shows too much skin". In the ad, the women pose with discreetly crossed arms, legs, and well-positioned camera angles, revealing nothing more than some healthy skin and a healthy attitude about their bodies and themselves.

The print ads that accompany the TV campaign are photographed by famed portrait photographer Annie Liebowitz and will run in women's magazines around the world. Apparently, naked women in their 50s and 60s are fine for Ladies' Home Journal but not for network TV. Individually, the body parts exposed wouldn't even register on the "offensive meter" but somehow when combined; they comprise a threat to society.

The FCC has buckled under pressure from some pro-family and women's groups who are urging a boycott of Dove products for "contributing to the sexualization of women as a commercial tool, as well as exposing children to adult nudity." Where are these same groups when the media portrays middle age women as unattractive, undesirable and uninteresting? Where are these groups when the media manufactures and perpetuates an unrealistic vision of aging, which includes only middle age super models or sexless frumps and nothing in between?

The FCC polices the cesspool known as broadcast television conveniently looking the other way when a nearly nude Britney Spears strips and gyrates to suggestive lyrics on MTV or when a Victoria Secret model struts in a thong, garter belt, fishnet stockings and bustier or when video game makers peddle digital murder, rape and robbery. Apparently, grandma wearing nothing but a big smile while showing uncovered arms, legs, backs and bellies is where they draw the line.

The use of nudity to sell products under nearly any circumstance is exploitative but this may be the rare exception. This campaign is not about nudity but rather about honesty. Dove officials defend the use of the images as "celebrating women 50+ and widening the definition of beauty to show that real beauty has no age limit." Dove, of course, is trying, first and foremost, to sell product but when a corporate giant is exposes and smashes pervasive and pernicious stereotypes about aging, I say, "right on."



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