Dove’s New ‘Alternative Facts’ Ad Mocks Trump Administration

Photo: Getty/Dove
Photo: Getty/Dove

Wearing deodorant can increase your intelligence, Dove reports. Well, at least in a world where “alternative facts” exist.

Working with advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in London, the U.K. arm of the beauty brand released an advertisement that takes aim at “alternative facts,” a buzz phrase made notorious recently by White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway.

Conway coined the expression to explain away White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s false claims about the size of the crowd at President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. So in the spirit of invented truths, Dove cheekily included a series of hilarious and blatant lies in the ad for its new antiperspirant, according to AdWeek.

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The first page of the campaign, which appeared in English newspapers, reads almost like a manifesto of some of the most ridiculous promises a company could make about a toiletry. “New Dove antiperspirant increases your IQ by 40 points,” reads one claim. “Was first used by Cleopatra,” “can plan your next holiday at a competitive rate,” “helps you remember distant relatives’ names at family gatherings,” “is a really good listener,” “boosts your Wi-Fi signal,” “knows a guy who can get you on the guest list,” and even “will locate that lost sock from two years ago” declare the rest. To truly drive home the joke, the company even asserts the product “rhymes with orange” (hint: nothing rhymes with orange).

The second page, though, is where Dove pulls back the curtain on the satire and makes a real promise to the consumer. Alongside an image of the product, the brand swears, “New Dove antiperspirant cares for your skin like never before,” and includes the hashtag #RealFacts.

The ad did not mention any names, but Ogilvy & Mather worldwide chief creative officer Tham Khai Meng did use Trump’s favorite means of communication — Twitter — to congratulate his team on the great and timely work. He noted that the ad is a “great #AlternativeFact moment” that parodies its subject matter “gently and with a smile.”

Dove’s parent company, Unilever, became one of the first brands to mock the new U.S. president, notes AdWeek, when its Pot Noodles brand suggested that if Trump can be president, literally anyone can. The Wales-based company brainstormed a character, “Gary” the bricklayer — “a man whose public antics closely mirror Trump’s” — who gets elected despite (or perhaps because of) his outrageous behavior.

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Other brands to use their platforms to parody the politician include taxi company Lyft and home-rental service Airbnb, which are taking more of an activist approach in their opposition of the Trump administration.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky offered free Airbnb stays to refugees “and anyone not allowed in the U.S.,” as he expressed on Twitter. Meanwhile, Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green pushed back on Friday’s controversial executive order on immigration by emailing Lyft customers to announce the company would donate $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is spearheading the battle against the refugee ban, and whose lawyers won a stay against the executive order from a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York.

No word yet on whether the campaign will make its way stateside, but one thing’s for sure: This could be a huge ad for Dove.

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