Doves Body Positivity Mishap

 I decided to write about Dove and their attempt to convey body positivity in the UK with oddly shaped soap bottles. There was a lot of backlash due to this misstep, primarily on Twitter. This really interested me because Dove has always pushed towards body positivity and this is a very rare mistake for the marketing team.

Dove's value proposition is to produce high quality shower related products for an affordable price. 

As we all have learned when companies or people make a mistake, they often get made fun of on Twitter and other social media platforms. Here were some of my favorite examples. 

 Dove was trying to convey a message with these bottle. The idea that all bodies are beautiful, sadly they just missed the mark. Dove has a long history of successfully completing this task with marketing in the past. company's marketing efforts? 

Dove was trying to continue their long past of remarkable body positive marketing ideas that allowed everyone to feel comfortable when they purchased their product. Dove was not trying to do something remarkable, but instead follow their tradition of marketing that has been unproblematic and very successful. In this case we get to see social media in full effect. People cracking jokes at the expense of a brand is something that we commonly see, and in this case Dove got a little taste of how toxic social media can get. I believe that this change in the shape of the bottles was used to try to build brand recognition, and did exactly that in a negative manner. 

Dove promptly apologized to their customers for the insensitive marketing, I believe that they did the right thing by apologizing quickly and putting it behind them. Dove had had a long streak of respectable marketing that really gave a positive message and this was just a bump in the road that needed an apology.

I would have mentioned the long history our brand has had towards body positivity. This is something that other brands pass over, but Dove does a good job incorporating it in a way that does not seem forced.

I learned that mishaps can be fixed with a thorough and thoughtful apology, and that Twitter memes that flame companies mistakes are hilarious.