A Feminist Critique of Femvertising: The Example of Dove's My Hair Is beyond the Rules Campaign

Abstract

This study uses Dove's (Turkish) TV advertisement My Hair Is beyond the Rules to develop a feminist critique of the new advertising method known as femvertising. The study begins by identifying four common points shared by post-feminist and femvertising discourse: (1) love yourself or love your body (2) your decisions are important (3) trust yourself and (4) buy to feel good. The study then critiques these four points from a feminist perspective: The first point contradicts feminist body politics. The second point is a result of neoliberal individualism and contradicts the idea of feminist gathering. The third point misappropriates feminist political and ideological concepts by placing them into an apolitical cultural climate. And the last point embraces commodity feminism.