Digital choice: Dove 'Onslaught'

by Mark Whelan, Creative director, Cake, Marketing 24-Oct-07

The Dove 'Onslaught' campaign is great.

This latest push is based on a Dove 'self-esteem fund', which encourages
dialogue between mothers and daughters about the horrors of the
appearance-obsessed culture we live in. (I've been telling people I'm

beautiful for years and still no one believes me.)

What I like about it is that it's not just a communications concept, it
is real - there is a fund, there are information packs, workshops and so
on. Debate is taking place.

Of course, it is up for debate whether a beauty-brand giant such as
Unilever can convincingly be behind a campaign of this nature. But I say
good on 'em. It's brave, it's real and it's using marketing money to do
something positive in society. Anyone can get Andie MacDowell tossing
her hair around in a bedroom full of white linen. Lord knows I have.

As for the film itself, it is viral more in terms of the debate it
sparks rather than its execution. This is not wacky entertainment, it is
a conversation trigger - the very definition of viral.

I'd prefer to see the film on the big screen, as it's a brilliant piece
of editing. Traditional agencies are defaulting to 'let's put it on the
web to get a buzz going', but the buzz could be started in the cinema,
with the answers found online.

Agency: Ogilvy.