Only four percent of women worldwide consider themselves beautiful according to Dove, whose latest installment of its famed Real Beauty campaign presents a social experiment to dispell negative personal perceptions. 

The tagline of the campaign, "You are more beautiful than you think," demonstrates the disparity between a woman’s self-image and a stranger’s perception, playing on the common saying , "You are your own worst critic."

Created by Ogilvy Brazil, FBI-trained artist Gil Zamora, an forensic expert who has sketched more than 3,000 eye witness reports, first drew portraits of seven women of different ages and backgrounds according to their own description, followed by sketches of those same women according to strangers who had just met them on the same day. 

In the "Dove Real Beauty Sketches" video (watch below) produced for the campaign, the participants say things like, "My mom told me I had a big jaw," "I kind of have a fat, rounder face," and "I'd say I have a pretty big forehead."Continue reading...

The idea of launching the Axe Face Line with a Facebook promotion obviously was too literal. So the Unilever brand is launching its new line of facial-care products instead with a "Facescore" campaign on Tumblr as a social face-off, supported by ads running on various media websites — and, of course, a presence on Facebook too.

In doing so, Axe is entering a segment of the men's care business of the first time — a more challenging territory than when it had a fairly singular focus on helping young guys simply smell great so they could attract hordes of women.

The launch of the Axe Face Line—including a face wash, shave gel, and post-shave hydrator in four variants—also gives the brand a chance to circle back to promoting Unilever's "Astronaut" marketing platform for the Axe brand (and Lynx brand, in certain territories) grand giveaway of 22 trips to space in 2015.

"Research has shown that a majority of guys don't use facial cleanser; they reach for bar soaps or shampoos or other things to wash their face," Mark Link, Axe US brand manager for Unilever, told brandchannel. "We're launching [the Face line] to address their skincare needs."Continue reading...

Pubic hair grooming accidents have, apparently, increased five fold in the last decade. "Nonelectric razors were responsible for 83 percent of injuries," according to the recent study by UC San Diego. If Gillette's new campaign is successful, ERs are going to see a lot more genital shaving injuries.

In what has to be one of the most transparent and intellectually insulting campaigns since whatever Axe did last, Gillette has assembled a team of models—led by encyclopedia entry for model Kate Upton—to tell guys, in no uncertain terms, that they have to shave their bodies. It's a genius idea with questionable execution and taste.Continue reading...

In a day where digital design renders face-lifts, tummy-tucks and general tune-ups de rigueur, Dove remains an innovative stand-out as they extend their "Real Beauty" campaign beyond advertising. 

33 million women made over advertising that highlighted their insecurities and impacted their self-esteem as part of the Dove Ad Makeover campaign last year, and in honor of International Women's Day, the brand is reprising the campaign and taking it global.

The Dove Ad Makeover invites women to send positive messages to other women through a Facebook application. "Dove has always listened to women and we feel that International Women's Day is the perfect time to once again inspire them by bringing our Ad Makeover Facebook app to America and to 18 countries around the world," said Rob Candelino, VP Unilever Skincare, in a press release.

The Unilever-owned brand is refreshing its long-running, and highly acclaimed "Dove Campaign for Real Beauty"—which fights unrealistic portrayals of women while pushing for realistic, positive ad messaging—with a social media-promoted Photoshop Action that works like a Trojan Horse by leveraging the element of surprise on those responsible for "unreal beauty" images in advertising.Continue reading...

The early days of the Axe and Lynx Space Academy contest (which we broke on January 9th) to fly winners into space has encountered a not-unforseeable snag: Some of the leaders in the social media-based competition for spots on the space flight are women, despite the original wording of the male-skewing sibling brands' contest: "Leave a man. Come back a hero."

This presents an interesting identity challenge to the Unilever-owned brands that have built their identification on the testosterone-fueled young male in search of—and equally targeted by—eager females. Now, eager females include those that are just as eager as their male counterparts to get into space. For example, Justine Ezarik, better known as internet celebrity iJustine, recently was at number four on the leader board, according to Ad Age. Social media support is the most crucial component of bids to get the brands' consideration for slots on flights by Space X Corp. beginning in 2014.Continue reading...

Barclays CEO vows to improve bank's ethics as company sets aside $1.6 billion for legal costs following exec shake-up.

S&P and McGraw-Hill sued by U.S. over controversial mortgage bond ratings.

KFC parent Yum! Brands suffers after China scandal.

Applebee's sees social media firestorm after employee posted customer receipt online.

AT&T introduces $1 mobile hotspot (with contract).

Axe broadens men's grooming portfolio.

Amazon and Samsung unseat Apple in customer engagement ranking.

Boeing finds experts stumped over Dreamliner's faulty batteries.Continue reading...

"Brotherhood," Budweiser's 2013 Super Bowl ad, was among those which stood out among rather routine fare.

Super Bowl ads (the complete list) this year provided few gems, according to an emerging consensus of industry professionals.

Many were deemed lame or even confusing, and generally considered ineffective and off-brand. Several brands seemed to suffer rather than benefit from the frenzy of sneak peeks and full-commercial reveals in this year's rush for pre-Game exposure and social buzz.

Just four days before the game, only a few Super Bowl advertisers have kept the creative content of their commercials entirely under wraps — and even fewer are yet to come forward reveal their participation.

One of the last hand-raisers came clean today: Speed Stick, which will air its first-ever Super Bowl commercial. The spot will represent the latest execution of "Handle It," a campaign that "celebrates moments when guys are sweating on the inside but step up and Handle It on the outside," according to a release.

In the spot, "Laundry," which was crowdsourced by the Tongal video community, a man demonstrates that he knows how to "handle it" in a laundromat when a woman finds him accidentally handling a pair of her panties. With the ad, Speed Stick and parent Colgate joinma men's personal-care battle-within-a-battle during the Super Bowl, competing against Unilever's Axe (which is sending contest winners to space).

Calvin Klein is also making its Super Bowl debut, and it's also about men and underwear:Continue reading...