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December 2007 - Strategy Magazine
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The evolution of Dove

by Lucy Saddleton
page 73

As Dove celebrates its 50th anniversary, strategy examines how the brand has evolved from a bar of soap to a global master brand. Along the way, we look at how messaging to women has also evolved over this pivotal period in women's history

1957-1967

It was the patriarchal era of suited, Brylcreemed men smoking cigarettes, and perfectly groomed housewives eagerly flitting around with a feather duster - at least in the eyes of the media. Most advertisers of this decade approached "the weaker sex" with the condescending notion that they spent their days dreaming about new household appliances or preening themselves to please their husbands.

When Lever Brothers' original Dove "beauty bar" first hit the U.S. market in 1957, ad messaging took a slightly different approach from the norm, focusing on the notion that Dove was "much better for your skin" than soap due to its mildness and its content of "one-quarter cleansing cream." Taglines such as "Suddenly soap is old-fashioned!" and "Dove creams your skin while you wash" pushed the product's point of difference, together with its novel curved shape and simple blue-and-gold packaging featuring the original dove bird logo, which still appears on packaging today.

Black-and-white newspaper ads were used alongside the era's new media, TV - all created initially by U.S.-based Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather for Lever Brothers, then an American and Canadian subsidiary of Unilever, which formed in 1930 when Lever merged with Dutch co Margarine Unie. Many of the ads featured the image of cream being poured into the Dove bar to emphasize its moisturizing quality - another signature Dove image that remains a staple today.

One of the earliest print ads pictures an ecstatic woman reclining in a tub (fully covered by soap suds, of course), holding a Dove bar in one hand and a telephone receiver in the other. The display copy reads: "Darling, I'm having the most extraordinary experience....I'm head over heels in Dove!" In smaller copy, the woman continues to gush at length about her "positively gorgeous" bathing experience in an amusing, over-the-top monologue: "Dove makes me feel all velvet and silk, all soft and smooth. Just the most pampered, the most spoiled, girliest girl in the world. Darling, I'm purring."

During its first decade, Dove advertising focused mainly on the facial benefits of the product, with the introduction of the Dove Face Test campaign. Print ads and TV spots typically showed a close-up of a woman's face as she washed half in Dove and the other half in regular soap, to promote Dove's non-drying benefits. "Try the Dove face test and soon you'll never wash with soap again," reads the tagline in one such spot. At the time, Dove was offered in a plain white bar or a lightly scented pink bar.

Then, as now, advertisers often used celebrities to endorse beauty products. Curiously, Groucho Marx's unmistakable mug was one of many famous faces used in Dove's TV ads during the late 1950s and early '60s.

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