November 1, 2023

Dove Customer Service

Dove Headquarters

Unilever US 700 Sylvan Ave Englewood Cliffs NJ 07632

Dear Dove Management Team,

I am writing with a concern that has been on my mind for quite some time now. After watching

your advertisement where a black woman takes off her brown shirt and then “transforms” into

a white woman, it didn’t sit right with me. It seems as though it didn’t sit right with a lot of

people given the different articles written about the advertisement. I personally use dove

products and have never had an issue. After watching the ad, I do believe that this is something

that needs to be addressed.

When reading the New York Times article on this topic it got me thinking a little bit more about

how this advertisement went through many different layers of people, yet no one saw any

issues with the it. At the time of publication (2017), this is unacceptable to be out of tune with

how this could effect people and the Dove company. I understand the need to be inclusive, it’s

important to know how to do it right and appropriately.

I am writing this letter to encourage you to take action on this matter. I encourage you to

possibly figure out a better process to which your advertisements go through to ensure this

doesn’t happen again. My hope is, that by writing this letter, it will bring you a better sense of

awareness to how this could have gone differently and what can be done in the future.

Sincerely,

Laurynn Padilla
November 13, 2023

Laurynn Padilla

1234 Sunshine Ave. NW

Albuquerque, NM 87120

Dear Ms. Padilla,

We at Dove regret the offense that the advertisement has caused. When it comes to inclusion

and diversity, we are committed to representing the beauty of everyone. However, we missed

the mark with this advertisement. Beauty is within everyone and Dove is a brand that is

dedicated to helping all women realize their own personal beauty by delivering products that

deliver care.

We do understand how this offended many people and although this advertisement was meant

to convey a celebration of diversity, we did get it wrong. We regretfully put out an ad that was

meant to be uplifting to women, however, it did quite the opposite and hurt many.

As for your comment about our internal processes when it comes to reviewing content, we will

be re-evaluating the process. You make a great point that this shouldn’t have gone through so

many people without objection.

Thank you for your letter and for your concern on this topic. If you have any further questions

regarding this topic or another, please feel free to reach out to us.

Sincerely,

Dove, Customer Services

 Problem Summary Statement

An advertisement was published in October, 2017 of a black woman removing her shirt

and when it goes over her head a white woman is revealed. This advertisement was published

by Dove and the backlash that was received painted Dove as racist. Many pointed out that this

advertisement seemed to say that the black woman was “dirty” and that by being white, she

was “cleansed.” As a result of this advertisement, people turned to social media outlets to voice

the “#boycottDove.” In these complaints towards the advertisement, many people stated that

they don’t understand how the advertisement got published and no one saw any issues with it.

As a response, Dove stated that in the future they will re-evaluate the process in which media

goes out. Dove also responded by saying that they are committed to representing the beauty of

diversity and that this advertisement missed the mark with what they were trying to do.
 Reflective Memorandum

Date: November 17, 2023

To: Andrew Bourelle

From: Laurynn Padilla

Subject: Dove Ad Campaign

The purpose of this project is to do plan, do research, and compose document. This goes

into one of our SLO’s which is Project planning. For project analysis, we complied the complaint

and response letters which showed how to write for a specific situation. In content

development, we are taking everything we have written and edited and compiling it into one

final document to be submitted. I think it’s important to mention peer review because that’s a

big part of the editing process and aids in the final product. This piece achieves it’s purpose

because we as student’s are able to take the SLO’s and put them into our work and bring it all

together for one project.

The audience for the problem summary statement and this reflective memorandum is for you

as the professor. The complaint letter is for Dove and the response would be for me as the

writer of the first. The social media series could be for anyone wanted to see others reactions to

the Dove advertisement. The needs for each one were different, when it came to writing to

Dove I wanted to be direct and to the point. When writing as Dove, I tried to write how I see

company’s writing back to others. This included being sympathetic and realizing the mistakes

made. For the social media comments, I tried to be short but direct. I read some comments that

were actually said on social media and there were a lot of short responses to the ad.
When I first read this assignments details I felt very overwhelmed, but having it broken up in

this way it really helped the way that I completed this project. It still feels like a lot but after

putting everything together it all makes sense and flows better for me.