Monthly Archives: October 2017

Over the past years, the topic of political correctness has gained a substantial amount of traction. Most recently, an allegedly racist ad published by Dove, a personal care brand, has prompted an outrage causing men and women globally to hold a knife to their throat. I gained inspiration to write on this topic after reading Cara Adensamer’s blog, and reflecting on her response to the issue at hand and contrasting it with my own.

In my respectful opinion, this situation was vastly blown out of proportion, and the population had a false conception of the true meaning behind the ad. The original advertisement published by Dove was in fact thirty seconds in length, and featured a variety of women changing their shirts in quick succession. However, the shortened version of the ad used on Facebook only included the clip of an African American being “whitewashed” signifying that, as Cara suggested, that women of color are dirty, and inferior to white women.

The issue at hand is the general population’s naivety; they made the quick assumption that Dove is a fundamentally racist company, without watching the entire ad and attempting to understand the underlying message. The full version of the advertisement reveals the Caucasian woman taking off her shirt and becoming an Asian woman shortly after. By the same logic employed by those deeming this ad as racist, this implies that Asian women are superior to white women, which is simply untrue, dismissing their poor argument.

A more complete version of the ad, demonstrating that the white woman turns into another woman of color shortly after, dismissing the racist argument.

Following the outrage, the black woman in the ad, Lola Ogunyemi, spoke with interviewers at BBC and affirmed that her experience with Dove was nothing but positive, and that every model was “fascinated with the concept” of the advertisement and were blessed with the opportunity to be on set. In fact, Ogunyemi argues that Dove were not completely in the right for issuing a brief public apology on Twitter, and should have instead defended themselves from the colossal backlash on social media.

An image showcasing a BBC interview with the black dove model, who believes had a positive experience and did not see the ad as racist.

Although I disagree with Cara’s overall opinion, I completely resonate with her valid argument that Dove made a grave mistake in not noticing that the shortened Facebook ad could be perceived as racist based on the few seconds shown, when in fact, it is evidently not. However, I uphold my opinion that the ad portrays an effective product that works on women with any skin color, affirming Dove’s value proposition of empowering woman of all races.

Ultimately, many people, myself included, believe this to be severely overlooked and one of the many demonstrations that people are consistently looking for something to be upset about, and that political correctness is unfortunately getting out of hand.

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Over the past decade, social media has become a phenomenon that has rapidly evolved, cementing itself as second nature for most individuals. Industry leaders have found themselves in a hectic toe-to-toe race, seeking to grab the attention of users and gain an inch over their fierce competitors.

A recent article suggests that Snapchat may just have forgotten to tie their laces in such a heated race, with Facebook attempting to prohibit its rise as the ultimate social media platform. Snapchat has become notorious for its multitude of features that cater to the millennial and Generation Z demographic, from offering appealing filters, stories to broadcast the entertaining moments of your life, and streaks to boast imaginative popularity points. In an attempt to overshadow their success, Facebook has recently implemented similar features.

Although the article proposes a valid argument, it is easy to disagree with the notion that this will lead to the inevitable downfall of Snapchat, assessed through both personal experiences, and several marketing analysis tools. It is evident that Facebook is seeking a transient advantage- the necessity of frequently generating new advantages and cementing them, as opposed to building a single one, and defending it. Such is necessary for a company to strive, however the critical issue at hand is that these features have already been flawlessly established by Snapchat, and are not new or innovative by any means. More importantly, Facebook has a dominant over-35 and elder demographic which simply and statistically do not find the appeal in these new features, resulting in Facebook’s recent implementations essentially becoming irrelevant.

An image showcasing the age demographic of social media users, including Facebook and Snapchat.

Although it can be difficult to establish a transient advantage or a deal-breaking point of difference between companies with similar value propositions, Facebook’s recent actions, in my opinion, have demonstrated a poor customer segmentation strategy. Speaking from personal experience, a vast majority of users make little to no use of Facebook’s story feature, and have opted to continue using Snapchat. The fact of the matter is, “young users don’t want to be on the same social network as their parents, grandparents or teachers”.

Snapchat has done a great job of keeping their users within the loyalty loop of the consumer decision journey- consistent updates, new filters, and lack of scandals as opposed to Facebook have enabled them to prosper, and will allow them to continue rising amidst their fierce competition. Ultimately, I must disagree with the notion that Facebook is soon to knock out Snapchat from the race. Each platform has a specific time-frame under which they strive, and if Facebook fails to obtain an innovative transient advantage in the future, they may find themselves following the footsteps of dead platforms, such as mySpace. Snapchat is only beginning its rise.

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