Now, the New Feelings Time Comedy group has created a pitch-perfect parody that shows how the same experiment might have gone had the subjects been men. Sure, they also suffer from skewed self image, but not in quite the same way as Dove’s ladies. (Hint: one guy describes himself as “a white Denzel Washington” while a woman says he looked “like he smelled really bad.”)

While we’re sure real-world dudes deal with their fair share of self-consciousness, we do know and love some guys who may have been a perfect fit in this parody, if for no other reason than they deal with said self-consciousness with outward displays of arrogance. But enough “being fair analysis” — we needed a good laugh this morning, and this certainly delivered. Enjoy!

And, for comparison, here’s the original again: continued…

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Dove recruited seven women of different ages and backgrounds to take part in an experiment. Early in the day, these women were asked to spend some time with a group of people they had never met before, but were not told why. Then, they met one-on-one with FBI-trained forensic artist Gil Zamora, who created composite sketches of them based on self-descriptions of their own facial features. Later, the artist met with the people who mingled with these women earlier in the day and drew sketches of the same women based on the way these strangers described them.

In the below video, we hear the women describe themselves by saying things like “my mom told me I had a big jaw,” and “I kind of have a fat, rounder face.” But when others are describing them, they say things like “she has nice eyes that light up when she speaks.” When the portraits are finished, without fail, those created from the observations of others are more flattering than those based on self-descriptions. continued…

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First Dove posted a download on Reddit that supposedly offered users a free tool to help retouch photographs by “enhanc[ing] skin tone” and “hiding all the imperfections”–in other words, all the things that Dove’s campaign opposed. But when users pressed the button, this “tool” reversed all the modifications to the image in question. (They could then “undo” the reversal, but the point had been made.)

This “hack” was a sneaky attempt to once again push the claim that Dove keeps things real in an industry dominated by digital tummy tucks, facelifts and tone-ups. In the video below, the company directly calls out “art directors, graphic designers and photo retouchers” for using Photoshop and other tools to promote unrealistic ideals  (never mind the fact that Dove has been accused of doing the very same thing).

Oh, and this is all part of a larger campaign which includes the hashtag #DovePositiveChange and a Facebook “Ad makeover” app which purportedly lets users revise ad spots designed to play on insecurities by promising to help women improve their appearance.

So is this another branding win for Dove, or do they need to stop pushing the same old concept?

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Things are changing, though–slowly but surely. Fathers, like mothers, are a little tired of being portrayed via dumb cliches, and they’re responding quite well to campaigns that feel targeted to them rather than their “nagging wives.”

At a recent “daddy blogger” conference in Houston, brands asked dads: “What do you guys want?” Their answer: we want to be treated as equals and competent parents, not mocked as clueless oafs who barely know how to use a microwave.

Dove Men+Care is one of the most prominent brands spearheading this trend by recruiting such “guy’s guy” dads as Shaquille O’Neal and a conveniently handsome “nonactor”/firefighter to let dads aged 35 to 44 know that it’s OK to use a facial scrub and a moisturizer.

As Jason Lin, VP and digital strategist at Ketchum PR, told The New York Times: ““The payoff is huge if you get dads right.” Can we think of brands beyond Dove that are getting dads right?

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The Onion

But now we know that’s not all “America’s Finest News Source” can do. See, Digiday taught us something this week: The Onion also helps brands discover (or re-discover) their sense of humor via its in-house ad/marketing/advisory team, Onion Labs. This strange experiment all started last year when Microsoft Internet Explorer, desperate for a rebranding, decided to embrace its reputation as “The Browser You Loved to Hate” and ask The Onion‘s advisory team for ideas (one of which was this cute “Child of the 90′s” video). The project grew rapidly from there.

Onion Labs is still relatively new, but the group’s site features a series of funny spots for brands as disparate as Jack Links and 7-Eleven. They’ve also worked on social media campaigns like the #vacationitis project for Hilton Hotels and Resorts.

We can certainly see why the Onion Labs aesthetic appeals to so many brands–if you’re not comfortable making fun of yourself then you’re going to have trouble appealing to that crucial 18-30 demographic. Here’s one of the Lab’s commercials pitching Dove deodorant to men by making light of the fact that guys don’t really like to deal with their dry skin problems:

continued…

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