The importance of being different. A trivial blog post for serious people

Oscar  Wilde was right: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple”. So is diversity,  and so is speaking truthfully about it. In this last blog post, I elaborate on the points made by Alice Claridge (“The Diversity of Nude”), by presenting the different faces of diversity and their role in the personal care industry. I also list three points organisations should reflect upon when dealing with diversity.

Under their skin

Nubian Skin is certainly not the first brand that has drawn consumers’ attention to diversity. While its attempt was successful, the same cannot be said for other brands. The controversy that Dove unwillingly created by showing a three-second footage of a dark-skinned woman “turning into” a light-skinned one represents a vivid example.

Source: CNN Business

The problem is not the lack of diversity  in the ad - “which is something Dove is passionate about and is core to [its] beliefs” (The Guardian) - but rather the way such a diversity is sequentially presented. The original longer version of the ad also showed light-skinned models becoming dark-skinned. However, the way the video was trimmed shows that diversity is sometimes a taken-for-granted issue within organisations. Not on social media though. The negative reactions triggered by the ad were in fact numerous, and underline that social media are more responsive to social issues, than economics-related issues (Russell Neuman, Guggenheim, Mo Jang, & Young Bae, 2014).

The different faces of diversity

Diversity also concerns body-shape. The reactions to Dove recent campaign promoting body-shaped bottles show that when it comes to sensitive issues there is a fine line between “empowering women and patronising them” (The Guardian).

Source: BBC newsbeat

Additionally, a study by Hafner andTrampe (2009) showed that when consumers react to an ad on impulse, they prefer thin models; however, if they rationally process the information and engage in a less superficial analysis  (i.e. reflective process), they prefer round models.

The examples so far addressed underline three aspects:

1. Diversity is often taken for granted within organisations

2. Diversity is a sensitive issue that might lead to backfiring results

3. Diversity still requires reflective processing of information

How to deal with it then?

Three points to remember for organisations (and society)

One of the first problems related to diversity  is that, from a very young age, we think that being different means being wrong. This is not the case, as Dove“Love your Curls” campaign shows. What to do?

1. Accept diversity because it adds variety to our lives and makes us all unique.

A second problem is the lack of dialogue regarding diversity, especially within organisations (Swanson, 2018). The solution?

2. Engage in an open dialogue and include more diversity-related programmes to increase awareness about the issue.

A third and last problem is brand fit and tone of the campaign.

Source: @ysl Instagram

Yves Saint Laurent attempt to promote diversity and empower women through “porn chic” pictures  “contravened the advertising codes relating to respect for decency, dignity and those prohibiting submission, violence or dependence” (Forbes). What to learn from this?

            3. Handle diversity with extreme (Dove) care.

About Angela Bonanno | LinkedIn | Facebook

Passionate about art, sport, and music.

She would have loved to study Interior Design or Photography, but she ended up being a MSc student in Persuasive Communication at Universiteit van Amsterdam.

In the end, they are all types of communication, aren’t they?