What is wrong with people?
Donna Charlton-Perrin, creative director on the Suave account at the Ogilvy unit of WPP Group, said Ogilvy was looking for ways to “interrupt moms when they are not thinking about themselves’’— say, by putting Suave stickers on food shelves in supermarkets, or running pop-up ads on Internet sites that sell children’s clothes.“There seems to be this feeling in the culture that moms must be martyrs, that their lives have to be all about their kids,’’ Ms. Charlton-Perrin said. “But the beautiful woman inside that mom is still dying to get out. So we’re saying, ‘A pretty mommy is a better mommy.’ ’’
It makes my brain bleed. Dove can just barely get away with saying "every woman should be beautiful" because beauty carries other meanings that we hope they're trying to imply. But Ms. Charlton-Perrin (clearly in-touch with American moms who have all adopted hyphenated last names and pursued careers as creative directors for Ogilvy) has just placed physical attractiveness above moral worth.
Maybe she was grossly misquoted? And the coloring books Suave published featuring that theme were actually all misprinted? Maybe she's not trying to suggest that $2 Suave shampoo somehow makes people prettier?
This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but an unstoppable slide toward consumerism and superficiality.
Thanks for taking the next step, Donna Charlton-Perrin and the sound, creative minds of Ogilvy.