This morning I was on YouTube when I saw an ad for Dove about a contest they are holding which allows users to create their own commercial and the winners’ commercial will be aired during the Academy Awards. Dove has had some great success recently with their Evolution video that I thought was very well done so I clicked on the banner to check out what they were up to now.

Dove along with AOL built a little application that allows users to create and edit their commercials online. They have also supplied videos, images and sound for the commercials. I thought this was a another great idea, they might of allowed users to use their own video, sound, etc, but I understand why they are supplying all the content. One step at a time.

Over the holidays, I was lucky enough to get a new digital camera and I have been playing around with some editing software so I thought this might be an interesting thing to try. Also, just for the record, I am a big Dove fan. If you went into my bathroom today, you would find both Dove soap as well as Dove shampoo. I began looking at the rules of the contest and downloading some of their files when something caught my eye in the contest rules. It said the following:

“ELIGIBILITY: Open only to women who are legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, 18 years of age or older and who are valid registered contestants.”

Screenshot:

I could not of read that correctly could I? Only women are eligible to enter this contest? May I ask why? Even though it is totally irrelevant, a man cannot enjoy Dove’s new cream oil body wash? Come on, I am very in touch with my feminine side, ask anyone. Who in their right mind decided that they could create a contest that only females are eligible to enter? Now I am no lawyer, but isn’t Dove and it’s corporate owner Unilever discriminating based on gender? I am just trying to get my head wrapped around this. So because I am a man, according to Dove, this product is not for me and I am not eligible to participate in your little contest. BUT, you still want me as a customer for many of your other products.

This is like the recent contest the NFL had asking people to create their own SuperBowl commercial. Now what would of happened if the NFL said that since the majority of their customers are men their contest is only eligible for men? There would of been huge backlash against the NFL. What makes this different? If this is legal and more importantly moral, what could we see next?

Dove, you have made a grave error with these contest rules. Let’s forget about the discrimination part of it, how about that you are running the risk of alienating 50% of the population, males, who happen to buy some of your products? Unilever are you willing to take that risk?

I would love other people’s opinions on this because this just does not make sense to me at all. Feel free to comment and let me know if I am seeing this the wrong way.

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