I have read a french article on the website agoravox about the Dove campaign " Onslaught", whose slogan is "talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does". Unilever, the corporation 'who' owns Dove  is constantly under surveillance.

       This is the first advertisement from the onslaught campaign. This does show that Dove wants to take responsibility for the impact of the beauty industries' marketing on teenager's self-esteem. For example,  recently in France, a new law has been created to protect teenagers against incitement to anorexic habits. It is a major concern in our modern society, where the media brings an image of ideal femininity and 'perfect' women. This is not compatible with an healthy and natural lifestyle. In this case, Dove attempts  to manage to avoid criticism by supporting this cause. This video has been seen 1.6 millions times on youtube. The parody of this video has only been seen 220 000 times.

          This counter advertisment from greenpeace campaing against deforastation is one of the 7th most posted video on blogs. This is not exactly what Unilever was hoping for when they did their campaign for self-esteem. In fact, Unilever though different marketing campaigns for different products send different messages that could be seen as  contradictory by consumers. For example the opposite message for Axe :  "spray more, get more". You can see the clip below illustrates this contradiction in evidence. It has been made by just one  employee from a marketing agency, as that he considered was shocking.

We can see that even Dove has been critical towards advertising campaigns, he now has to face different kind of responsibility such as environmental responsibility. This activism marketing is putting pressure on Dove to address environmental issues in Cambodia against deforestation. This is a criticism was addressed to the company by Greenpeace. They used the Dove marketing message as a tool to raise consumer awareness and hopefully Corporation awareness about the situation in Cambodia. 

       I am curious to see what will be Dove's reaction in its next campaign. Dove has a clear message from its stakeholder ( Greenpace ) . Greenpeace gets support from the potential customers as many of them have watched and spreaded the video. I also wonder how Dove will report and address potential change in its organisation. Will they create another campaign, a new website ? 

      Update : I found new information on the public relation website : PRWEEK. If you search for Dove on this website, you will find a serie of article talking about the issue, from both side.

     First at all , "onslaught" is a part of a worldwide Public relations strategy, Dove has collaborated with the Public Relation agency LEXIS PR. Greenpeace targeted three differents agency who work with Dove to give them a report on rain forest destruction. Greenpeace wants them to be aware of which kind of company they work for and therefore take action.  

    LEXIS PR did not appreciate the NGO's tactics. They say it is pointless and aggressive. Maybe using staff dressed as orang-utang and coming to LEXIS PR office without any appointment to distribute this report is a really violent method ( Public Relations agency use Hot-dog men to promote their clients sometimes ... ) 

       Dove does not have CSR report, however, the corporation Unilever provides a CSR report. It is a comprehensive report. It describes every engagement that they take. I looked particularly at the climate change section. They say that they are concerned by their carbon footrpint and the use of new biofuels. But they do not talk about the raw material used by their product. In this case they use olive palm for their products at the expense of the Cambodian forests. It is important to say that Unilever heads up the industry body, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil...

That raises a few questions:

   -Would the Unilever brand be responsible for the Dove brand and also get a negative reputation ?

   -would Uniliver CSR statements apply to its owned company Dove ?

   -We have seen that internet users such as NGO's and bloggers have a certain impact on corporate brands and how they disclose information. Then, should internet users be seen as a specific stakeholder for the company and should the corporation engage in a two-way communication process and dialog with these specific stakeholders ?

      This shows the role of internet and what kind of batlefield it has become, where all kind of truth can be said... you, as a stakeholder, behind your screen have to make your opinion and to investigate. Who will you trust ?