The Dove Corporation is a company that is owned by a larger organization, to which it also owns several other subsidiary companies, including Axe perfume for Men. The Dove Corporation’s Campaign for Real Beauty asks viewers and consumers to look inwards for beauty, and not trust their baser instincts as it has been tainted by the media, patriarchal societal expectations, and biased beauty ideals. However, while these are true, Dove’s counterpart Axe instead takes the opposite stance and promises the allure of women’s attention to the wearer of the perfume. Essentially Axe promises a bevy of beautiful women (beautiful in the sense that they conform to the biased beauty ideals). Both Axe and Dove are managed by the same ad firm (they’re owned by the same company after all).

So how can a company claiming that it values real inner beauty (not to mention that its selling a product intended to enhance your outer beauty) counter itself by further promoting the very biased beauty ideals that it mocks? Paradox or just hypocrisy?