Dove's Cream Oil Body Wash Gets an Oscar

A second promotion to come out of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign is for the launch of their new Dove Cream Oil Body Wash product line. Back at the end of 2006 Dove ran a contest in which they provided online tools such as product shots at www.dovecreamoil.com to be combined with consumer generated video ads that promoted the product. 1,000 videos where submitted by the deadline of Jan. 15th and posted online.

So, similar to what Doritos did for their consumer-generated ads during the Super Bowl, Dove planned to do for this promotion. This time it was the Oscars and not only did they run the winning ad, but they bought another 30 second spot to run before it so that Grey's Anatomy star Sara Ramirez could introduce the ad as well as its creator, 22-year-old Lindsay Miller from Sherman Oaks, Calif. Lindsay sings into a pink hairbrush and dances in the shower and told "Good Morning America" anchor Chris Cuomo "Thinking about beauty and what it means to me … and to me it's when I'm doing the ridiculous things that I'm doing."

By utilizing Sara Ramirez together with Lindsay, Dove is connecting with a much younger female audience that they have been with their ProAge line ads which are utilizing 50+ real women. Dove Marketing Director Kathy O'Brien said "We love the contrast of Dove real women against the glitz and celebrity of the (Oscars)."

Visitors to www.dovecreamoil.com now can view both the intro ad by Sara and the winning ad by Lindsay as well as enter the new contest to become the next Dove Real Women. You just need to submit an essay explaining why you should appear in the next Dove ad and a photo of yourself. The following will be the criteria for this contest: Written Expression (Essay only-50%), Sincerity (Essay only-40%) and Photo's Relevance (10%). We'll have to wait till May 15th to find out who the new winner is and what TV network will first air the winning ad. Perhaps ABC will run it during the season finale of Grey's Anatomy?  We'll just have to wait and see.