As this COVID-19 pandemic has gone on, and more people are staying at home, companies are adjusting their advertisements to match the current affairs of the world. One company doing this is Dove; they have used a thirty second spot to encourage people to wash their hands. That’s it, that’s the ad. It begins with them asking the audience when the last time they washed their hands then it starts a twenty second timer as a way to get people to wash their hands during that moment. They even say they don’t care which soap you use to wash your hands, so long as you actually are washing your hands. Their Dove logo stays on the screen the entire time and then the ad ends with the words ‘take care, be safe’ and ‘#washtocare.’

It’s a very simple ad, but it’s also incredibly effective in more than one way. 

I remember seeing this ad in the springtime, in the United States, when the stay-at-home orders began to come down, and I’ve continued to see it in the months since, even after arriving in London. And I found it to be one of the few Covid-19 ads that wasn’t out-of-touch or had a cheesy “we’re all in this together” mentality. And because there is no dialogue, I find myself glancing at the television then watching it every single time. Dove is a health and beauty brand, but in this case, they’re specifically promoting health, and not a specific product. And that fits in with how they describe themselves: “But Dove care goes beyond our products. … We care about how we make our products and what goes into them, about the impact we have on our planet and how we can strive for a better, more sustainable way of being.”

Dove is continuing to transform themselves from not just a beauty line for the everyday person but promoting inner beauty and strength. How can we convey our message beyond our products? However, despite the call to action, they are still promoting and selling themselves. The Dove logo stays on the screen the entire time, and despite their lack of promoted product, they’re still hoping the consumer makes the connection of, I like this ad from Dove, they are encouraging me to be healthy and keep safe, so this is the kind of brand I want my money to go towards. 

To tie it all together, if we think back to the #LikeAGirl campaign, these brands aren’t promoting the products they’re known for, but a wider discussion that they then hope will bring in more consumers. But what I think does separate it from the #LikeAGirl ad is Dove is not promoting anything other than your health and safety with this ad, which is (theoretically) not something that could or should be politicized. Washing your hands to keep yourself and others healthy is something everybody should be able to get behind. And unlike Always, the Dove ad, much like the Dove brand on the whole, is seemingly trying to move away from “popular feminism” but continuing to promote whatever makes you feel good and healthy, for whomever wants to buy their products – female, male, or non-binary. This is just one of the handful of campaigns they have promoting a new, different kind of beauty.

In the grand scheme of things, despite Dove not (technically) promoting themselves or their body wash, lotions, or shampoos and conditioners with their ad, it does stay in line with their brand and their values. They take pride in promoting a brand that brings out the best in everybody and wishing people health and safety in the middle of a global pandemic certainly does that.