Dove uses’ Selfies’ to redefine beauty and win Great PR

 23rd January 2014    Good and Bad PR 

Dove uses’ Selfies’ to redefine beauty

Dove released a short film during the Sundance Festival, which began earlier this week, about redefining beauty through ‘selfies’. The film encouraged mothers and daughters to take ‘selfies’ that highlight what they think are their worst features.

When these pictures are exposed to others, these women discovered that what they thought were their worst features are what people found beautiful.

I liked the use of ‘selfies’, perhaps the most intimate photographs we take of ourselves and worry about to explode the myth of what is beautiful. Dove picked ‘selfies’ as the driving force of their film because their research showed that over 63% of women believe social media is influencing today’s definition of beauty more than print media, film and music.

This campaign is very similar to their earlier "beauty sketches" ad, which also showed that what people consider to be their worst features are what others like the most.

We don’t see enough campaigns in India on what is beauty, given our strong prejudices’, especially about colour. I would really like to see an Indian version of the selfie ad by Dove.  Or Tanishq could also conduct a similar experiment around skin colour.

A big thanks to @InaBansal for sharing this story with PRmoment.

Great PR

“Joy Jackets” spring to life when you eat Cadbury’s chocolates

Cadbury has taken wearable tech to a new level all together. It has invented a trench coat that literally dances when you eat a piece of Cadbury chocolate.

According to Adweek: “A pair of the so-called "Joy Jackets," created by digital shop Hirsch & Mann for Cadbury PR agency Golin Harris, also play music and puts on a light show. Yes, each jacket's moves are choreographed to its tune. The hem shimmies itself up. The shoulder flaps fan open. The Cadbury-purple collar pops out like peacock feathers before a confetti gun goes off. The cameras built into the jacket reportedly trigger the sequence if you're eating one of two Cadbury candy bars.”

Whatever next. Dancing saris, anyone?

Thanks to Nihal Shaikh for the heads up on this story.

Bad PR

AAP protests sparks off round of bad PR for politicians, clarification by the Times of India

While the behaviour of AAP has been nothing short of lawless, the strong stand against Delhi police also appealed greatly to AAP constituents in Delhi. AAP actions got as many supporters as they did critics.

The Kejriwal protests followed a midnight raid by Somnath Bharti, law minister for Delhi, on African women in Khirki village, allegedly to act against a drug and prostitution ring. According to a testimony by the Ugandan women, Somnath Bharti led a mob against them and took them for forcible drug tests. During the raid, Delhi Police refused to arrest these women citing lack of due process.

As the week progressed, criticism began to mount of Kejriwal’s actions, sparking off ill-considered remarks from all sides. While Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal declared himself an anarchist, Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde called Kejriwal ‘Yeda’ mad. ‘Yeda’ promptly made it to the top ten twitter trends.

Two other hashtags #AAPDrama  and #QuitAAP made it to the top trends in India on Twitter. While the hashtag # #CongBjpQuitIndia has been doing the rounds since last week, AAP joined the list as well. The #AAPDrama hashtag was heavily promoted by ‘Times Now’, which was highly critical of AAP actions, as was the media group as a whole including The Economic Times and Times of India.

The coverage was strident enough to prompt the ‘Times of India’ to issue a front page clarification on Thursday saying that they have not ’turned against’ AAP but are merely on the sides of their readers. The paper denied that it had any “political masters”

Channels such as CNN-IBN and NDTV 24x7 were a little more neutral in their coverage.

While the #AAPDrama has certainly succeeded in knocking Modi off the main news, a day after Modi revealed his vision document for India.  What about governance of Delhi you ask? Well, who cares as long as there is a protest to march to, right?

Have you seen any great or even bad PR?

Write to Paarul Chand at paarul@prmoment.in or tweet @PaarulC or @PRmomentIndia throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.