Group accuses Unilever of ad hypocrisy

Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" has been extolled by women's groups and the advertising industry for its message that the beauty industry sets unrealistic one for Dove that praises women and their natural beauty and one for Axe that the group said "blatantly objectifies and degrades" them.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood launched a letter-writing effort on its website and demanded that the company pull ads for the Axe line of grooming products for men, which one online pitch says makes "nice girls turn naughty."

Unilever shouldn't be commended for Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" while promoting products with a starkly different message, said Susan Linn, the consumer group's director and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "The campaign says they're going to help girls to resist a toxic marketing environment but they're creating that environment as well," Linn said.

"When you take a stance," as Dove has with its anti-beauty industry marketing, "it does raise the game," O'Keefe said.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, affiliated with Harvard University, is a coalition of healthcare professionals and advocacy groups.

On its website, it asks people to send Unilever a form e-mail or letter urging the company to "end your sexist and degrading advertising for Axe grooming products."

LINK:The Dove "Evolution" ad
LINK: Axe commercials
LINK: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
LINK: LA Times