Ethical Issues of Unilever

Unilever
Unilever has become a leading global manufacturer of packaged consumer goods. It operates in most of the sectors of the economy including food, home, and personal care. They own over 400 brands with eleven of them having global annual revenues of more than $1 billion. Brands include: Knorr, Surf, Lipton, Omo, Sunsilk, Dove, Blue Band, Lux, Hellmann’s, Becel, the Heartbrand logo, Axe, Ben and Jerry’s, Slim-Fast, Klondike, Vaseline, Ragu, and others.

The Dove and Axe Case
Dove:
Dove produces beauty products mainly for women. Dove became the world’s number one cleansing brand. They achieved this success through a marketing campaign known as “The Campaign for Real Beauty.” They say “Dove’s mission is to make more women feel beautiful every day by broadening the narrow definition of beauty and inspiring them to take great care of themselves.”

Axe:
Axe provides grooming products mainly for the young male consumer. Unilever launched this brand back in 1983 in France. Axe markets itself to younger men by sending the message that if you use Axe, more women will become attracted to you. “Wearing Axe will lead to the ultimate male fantasies. The company places ads in such media outlets as Maxim and FHM, which target primarily young-male audiences.

Unilever Issue:
Dove and Axe do very well using completely different marketing strategies, but these strategies actually contradict each other in the message they send and Unilever owns both of these companies. Unilever's website boasts that they are a company with brands that "help people feel good, look good and get more out of life." Consumers see this value continued through the Dove brand with their "Real Beauty Campaign" but  the lines get a little blurred when it comes to Axe. While Dove is passing along their message of positive self image for women, Axe is releasing an add stating “The Cleaner you are, the dirtier you get.” In the Axe ads the women are all skinny and beautiful, which consumers believe are reinforcing the negative stereotypes about women. While in the Dove ads women are encouraged to love themselves no matter what their body looks like. On the other hand Axe is standing for everything that Dove is trying to rid the world of. Consumers wonder how it is possible that Unilever, a company whose mission is to make people feel and look good, is letting Axe get away with ads that belittle and degrade women.

Unilever Response:
Unilever has responded to these allegations by saying that both companies values do fit with the companies central goal. They believe that while Dove is making women feel better about themselves, Axe is doing the same thing for young men. With the help of Axe and their ads, the company is trying to help young men feel less awkward about the changes that are occurring in their bodies. They believe that both brands are continuing the companies main goal, they're just doing it in different ways.

Unilever continues to let Axe and Dove send customer mixed messages, because both of these brands make the company a lot of money.  With sales that high it is obvious to Unilever that both advertising techniques are working to maximize their profit, therefore should not be changed as they are not breaking any laws.

Society Response:
There is a large group of people who are not happy with the use of advertisements within Unilever. The stakeholders that are negatively effected by these ads are all women who purchase either product, any woman who sees the ads, or any woman who has a negative body image. There is a large part of the population that is being made unhappy because of the ads. In this case all woman are involved in the business, because Axe is advertising negative stereotypes for the whole gender by
selling feminine self-empowerment to girls and anti-feminine self-empowerment to boys. They are building it up and breaking it down at the same time, so that they can make money.