The original print ad of Dove Chocolate was first published in South Korea in March 2007.

Dove Chocolate, 2007

This advertisement is problematic as it implies ideas that are offensive to certain groups and race. The advertisement shows a man’s chest, and the dark colouring and shadows outlines his abdominals, which symbolizes the 6-pack dove chocolate the company is trying to advertise. Moreover, the dark shading of the advertisement creates an image that the man is a man of color and is making reference to the chocolate. In a way, using the man’s chest to represent the chocolate bar can suggest the interpretation that a black man’s value is equivalent to a chocolate bar. At the bottom, fine prints say “Six Pack that melts a girl’s heart. Dove chocolate”, and beside the words is a small picture of the actual dove chocolate. When looking at the advertisement, the man’s chest is the dominant image as it takes up a larger portion of the ad. It is quite obvious that this ad objectifies men as only the chest is shown. This ad attempts to lure woman in purchasing the item by seducing them through the man’s protruding chest and abdominals.

The target audience of this advertisement is women as society constructs the idea that having well developed abdominal muscles is an attractive characteristic of men and it is often most appealing to women. In fact, the ad attempts to advocate the notion that that woman cannot resist such “fit” body. The text at the bottom entails a pun. The words “Six Pack” can refer to the six-bite size piece package of the chocolate or the well-defined abdominals of a man. By looking at the ad at a first glance, the man’s chest is much more eye catching because of the size compared to the chocolate bar in the bottom right corner, which attracts people to notice that first. Then scanning to the bottom of the ad, read the words “Six Pack that melts a girl’s heart”, which immediately links to the idea that “six-pack”, is referring to the man’s chest rather than the chocolate because the image of the man’s abdominals creates a stronger impression. Moreover, a girl’s heart cannot physically melt. The idea of heart melting is generally accepted as having feeling of desire or love. This text is implying the idea that the “six packs” will cause the girl to have a feeling of love. In addition, this sentence discriminates against homosexuals as it is only referring to “girl’s hearts” that will be melted, rather than all sexual orientation. With the impression that “six packs” is referring to a man’s abdominals, it is inevitable to believe that the ad is trying to bring out a message that a man’s abs will cause a girl to have feeling of desire and happiness. In other words, one may believe that by consuming Dove Chocolate, it will promote the concept of lust. Putting everything together, the underlying meaning of this advertisement contains a sexual message that a woman’s love for chocolate and men are equivalent.

This is problematic as it sets creates an expectation for men that they must have such body in order to be appealing to woman. Furthermore, it is assumed that woman admires men with such body. This advertisement has an incorrect representation of gender and race, thus I recreated the ad to remove these stereotypes of women and men.

In recreating this advertisement, I removed the man’s chest from the original ad and replaced it with a chocolate bar vector to make it clear that it is a chocolate advertisement and men are not being objectified. I find that the man’s chest image was the most problematic aspect in the ad as it hinted sexual notions. I wanted to bring out a positive and clean representation of Dove Chocolate, so that it will not create any misleading interpretations. By removing the man’s chest image, it also removes the gender and race issues of black man and the idea of a “fit body” of a man. In the top corner, I included the brand “Dove” to make the draw the audience’s attention that it is a chocolate advertisement. I kept the original chocolate bar logo in the bottom right corner as that is the actual product being advertised. I also changed a few words in the text at the bottom because they were directed to only females in the original ad. Rather it saying “Six pack that melts a girl’s heart. Dove Chocolate”, it became: “The pack that melts your heart. Dove Chocolate”. “The pack” refers to the pack of chocolate bar, as there are no other references in the ad for it to connect to. Rather than being gender specific and targeting only female, I changed it to “your heart”, so that it is not directed to only one gender. What my new advertisement is trying to provoke is that chocolate should not be linked with any sexual aspects, and should be appropriate for all ages.