Cross-posted at Hawkblocker.
This Dove commercial for hair dye is just fascinating. It features a woman talking about what color means to her. She observes that color is sensual, drawing connections between certain colors and the feeling of a cool breeze, the sun on one’s skin, a taste on one’s tongue, and more. She says colors are moods: blonde is bubbly, red is passionate. The voice-over explains that dying her hair makes life “more vivid” and makes her want to laugh and dance. She does it to invoke these characteristics.
She then explains that she’s blind. The commercial uses her blindness to suggest that hair dye isn’t about color at all. It’s about the feeling having dyed hair gives you, even if you can’t see the color. “I don’t need to see it,” she says, “I can feel it.”
By using a woman who is (supposedly) blind, the commercial for hair dye uses the element of surprise to detach the product from the promise. The sole purpose of hair dye is changing how something looks, but this ad claims that the change in appearance is entirely incidental. Instead, dying one’s hair is supposed to make all of life more vibrant, every moment incredibly special, every pleasure more intense, and fill you to the brim with happy emotions. It’s completely absurd. Fantastically absurd. Insult-our-intelligence absurd.
And yet, it’s also exactly what nearly every other commercial and print ad does. Most ads promise — in one way or another — that their product will make you happier, your life brighter, and your relationships more magical. The product is positioned as the means, but not an end. Most hair dye commercials, for example, promise that (1) if your hair is dyed to be more conventionally beautiful, (2) you will feel better/people will treat you better and, so, (3) your life will be improved. This ad just skips the middle step, suggesting that chemicals in hair dye do this directly.
So, I’m glad to come across this utterly absurd commercial. It’s a good reminder to be suspicious of this message in all advertising.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 66
Eduardo — February 9, 2013
“The sole purpose of hair dye is
changing how something looks [...]” Maybe I'm reading too much classism into this, but unless a woman can afford to
look like a slob at work, then yes. From what I observe daily, this
applies to heels and makeup as well.
Azrhey — February 9, 2013
Given the number or times I've gone to a salon and said "change my colour, don't care for what just something different" and then walked out with a spring in my step. Feeling different, rejuvenated. Not particularly more beautiful, but relaxed. I don't see the issue with this ad. Some people meditate to feel better, some people craft thing, I go to the salon. Sometimes do it at home. Is it the time spending taking care of myself that makes me feel better or the chemicals in the dye? Most people would not care about the answer, just that they do feel better in the end.
Village Idiot — February 9, 2013
Maybe Dove puts LSD in their hair dye products now?
mimimur — February 9, 2013
It cuts out the first step too. Unless the whole ad is about the placebo effect, she wouldn't experience any difference in her appearance (unless there was a built on conditioner, maybe? Or are they trying to tell us that the dye leaves so much residue in the hair that a blind person would actually notice a difference?)
Norman Lewis — February 9, 2013
It also makes reference to the fact that women's performance of their assigned gender role is focused onto how they appear *to others* rather than to themselves. Which undermines the frequently hinted notion in adverts of 'beauty is about how you feel about yourself'.
Anna — February 9, 2013
I read that the woman featured in the ad was blind from the age of 20, so she does have a visual conception of color. Still, I love the way she describes how she experiences color; it is similar to narratives about color and other purely visual things I have read from people who were born blind. They experience color through sensory associations and social cues.
"This ad just skips the middle step, suggesting that chemicals in hair dye do this directly."
I didn't interpret it that way. This interpretation occurs only if you take a very literal meaning of the ad, and I think it's aiming for something more abstract than that. It actually has quite a typical trajectory for advertising a looks-based product, for better or for worse.
In any case, I wouldn't throw the word "absurd" around as generously as has been done here. It's quite graceless, to put it politely. Yes, the commercial is amusing in a cynical
sort of way, as commercials usually are, but it is really not that absurd. Who on earth says that blind people do not place importance on their looks; do not experience changes in their emotional makeup depending on the state of their looks; are not aware of the effect their looks have on other people; and don't judge other people and choose partners/friends/etc. based on their looks? Sociologists constantly talk about beauty standards and other things relating to physical appearance as social constructions, but they have sorely neglected to explore how physical appearance is socially and inwardly experienced.
(Anecdotally, the vainest and most trophy girlfriend-seeking (in both cases relating to beauty) person I have ever met to this day was a man who was 100% blind since birth.)
Violet — February 9, 2013
Well, I just had a conversation yesterday with my husband about how I "felt" about not dying my hair red anymore. I had been a fake redhead for over ten years and I loved the image, the idea of being a firey redhead. People TREATED me like a redhead. Alas, as I turned more gray, my hair just wouldn't keep the color the way it used to. So, the commercial is dead on because we dye our hair often for others and how they react to us impacts the way we feel.
Meimi Nezu — February 9, 2013
A while ago, I read a fascinating story by Malcolm Gladwell about the advertising of hair color, from "Does she or doesn't she?" to "I'm worth it" and beyond. This seems to ride on that trend: "Keep the Feeling" of "I'm worth it". It also seems to play into Pine and Gilmore's The Experience Economy.
If we back off from the Experience Economy message, however, what I see is that men are taught to feel better by having fun. Sports, playing games, watching TV, eating, toying with electronics, and generally doing something that is completely unrelated to their appearance or having someone else pay attention to them. Women, on the other hand, are taught to feel better by doing things related to appearance or "getting pampered", such as shopping for clothes, getting manicures, visiting a hair salon, going to a spa, etc.
Men don't have to look good to feel good. Why is the message to women that looking good and feeling good are related?
Alison — February 9, 2013
Why did you start off by claiming that the ad was "about the feeling having dyed hair gives you" and then end the article by saying the the skipped step was "you will feel better"?
Was this even proofread?
wardrobe consultant — February 10, 2013
Don't rub or tug
hair in a towel when you are drying it.This can make hair frizzy or break it.
Instead, blot, squeezing it with ease or wrapping it in a cotton towel. You
should also avoid brushing or combing it while it's wet, if you must then use a
wide tooth comb.
Lance — February 10, 2013
By using a woman who is (supposedly) blind...
It's a minor point, but a little Google research turns up that the woman is named Kate Crofts and that she is indeed blind. Do you gain anything here by doubting her identity?
Kate Crofts — February 10, 2013
.
Kate Crofts — February 10, 2013
Hello, I am Kate, the blind woman from the advert.
Dove don't make hair dye. This ad advertises a range of conditioners
and shampoo products designed for coloured hair. Also, pigment, natural
and artificial does have texture, try stroking a yellow or black
Labrador, you'll soon see the difference.
I started losing my sight aged seven and was registered blind at 20.
All my life I have experienced some cross over between various senses
(synesthesia). It is worth noting that only a small proportion of blind
people have no sensation of light at all. The presumption that blind
people have no concept of sight is one that I regularly have to
confront. Sometimes I do not match with people's preconceived notion of
what a blind person is "supposed" to be and when that happens, one
common response is to doubt that I am in fact blind or to regard me as
not "properly blind".
This ad was scripted by the director and I together and includes my own opinions and words.
If, when you dye your hair, you do not feel any different, why do you do it?
John Hensley — February 12, 2013
So here is a blog dedicated to showcasing, week after week, various ways in which the visible is not merely visible but also social. When the Dove brand releases an ad that says the same thing about hair color, this same blog calls it "absurd." That is some deep irony.
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