Dove is not resting on its digital laurels. The latest installment in its ongoing Real Beauty and self-esteem campaign this time targets kids. 

The Dove Self Esteem Project, working with Lisbon agency Torke+CC, created the Carbon Paper Ad campaign, placing an ad (and a pen) in a parenting magazine, asking adults in Portugal to write down the worst name they remembered being called as a child. 

When the written page is turned, the hurtful name appears printed across the shirt of a child—through the use of secreted carbon paper—illustrating that, "Words mark children forever."Continue reading...

How appropriate is it that Jaguar has finally released its much anticipated branded short film Desire at the very same time that a fictional Jag representative on the hit show Mad Men is arguing for foregoing a "national ad campaign in favor of hard driving sales ads at the local dealer level?"

The Desire film is absolutely a national brand-making campaign and by no means a "hard driving" sales push of any kind. It is not meant, in the Mad Men dealer's words, "to move metal." It's too bad then that Jaguar's real-life branded film is so poorly targeted since Mad Men set the brand up with such a meatball opportunity.

For months, the auto-watching world has wondered about the Jaguar mini-film. When the music video tie-in from Jaguar music partner Lana Del Rey was released on Valentine's Day, it sucked up attention. The video has since logged over 300,000 views.

The full, quarter-hour mini movie is now here and it's hard to argue that Jaguar's Desire isn't a rather naked attempt to recreate the themes of BMW's decade-old iconic branded film series The Hire.Continue reading...

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...

Microsoft signs patent deal with Foxconn to get cut of Android production. 

Dove uses forensic sketch artist to "beautify" women.

Tesco expected to announce the sale or closure of 199 of its Fresh & Easy stores in the US.

American Apparel comes under fire again for "offensive" ads in UK.

Apple has been ordered to remove obscene content from its App Store by Chinese government officials.

Bank of America struggles for growth.

BBC Worldwide partners with Foxtel to build BBC brand in Australia.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...

Alibaba names next CEO.

Denny's cancels franchise deal in China.

Google shows off sample apps for Project Glass a SXSW.

American Airlines and U.S. Airways prepare for merger bumps.

Apple and Samsung values soar.

Barney's New York rebrands Co-op stores as regular Barney's.

BlackBerry stock jumps on Lenovo takeover interest rumor.

BMW to build sub-brand for China.

Boeing sees investigators focus narrowly on batteries in Dreamliner probe.

China's Spring Airlines adds cars to in-flight sales offering.Continue reading...

Unilever's recent sale of its Skippy peanut butter brand in North America was just one indication of how slow-growing food businesses have begun to weigh down the global CPG giant.

Today's earnings report underscored that difficulty for Unilever: Fourth-quarter sales of Ben & Jerry's, Knorr soups and other Unilever food brands rose only 1.3 percent as consumers in debt-laden U.S. and Western Europe markets continue to pare back their supermarket purchases.

On the other hand, Unilever's business in Asia, Africa and Latin America demonstrated enough strength that the company was able to report an overall 5.4 percent rise in net profit for the period. In those markets, its revenues accelerated in home and personal-care items such as surface cleaners, soap and deodorant.Continue reading...

Japan experienced a "lost decade" of economic stagnation in the Nineties, and that was bad enough. But now the CEO of Unilever warns that Europe's slump may end up lasting at least that long. And that means Unilever and the rest of the CPG industry will continue having to adapt to it.

"We are in for at least 10 years of slow economic growth in Europe, and I don't see that changing" after the continent already has been slumping for a few years, Paul Polman told Bloomberg. "The key thing is to see reality in the eye."

And while Polman looks for continued difficulties in the Dutch company's close European market, which accounts for about 25 percent of its $65 billion in annual sales, he also doesn't like what he sees — and foresees — in the economy of the U.S., for which Unilever now depends for about 16 percent of sales.Continue reading...