Not unlike Bud Light with beer, Dove Soap is the top selling bar soap. It sells nearly double its nearest competitor, Dial, according to Statistica. So, the brand management at owner Unilever can’t read and/or didn’t pay attention to Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light. Maybe they thought that their product was too special for the Bud Light effect.
Is it worth destroying a profitable brand in the name of inclusivity?

The current crop of brand managers don’t realize they are caretakers whose job it is to pass a live brand on to the next generation of brand management. And, helping your consumers unalive themselves is not part of your portfolio. Their charge is not to kill the brand in the name of inclusivity.
Black. Twofer! For soap, a twofer should mean clean and lubricated. Not today.

Meet the new influencer for Dove, Zhyanna Bryant. Miss (assuming her gender) Bryant is not fat. Like most Americans are overweight. Miss Bryant is Lizzo obese. There are significant comorbidities for obesity in Black women:

Preface, by Marcia E. Sutherland, PhD: African-American women who are overweight, obese and morbidly obese are likely to experience weight-related health risks, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, various types of cancer, sleep apnea and osteoarthritis, among other risks. Limited and mixed research findings suggest that higher levels of body mass index (BMI) (≥35.0) and a larger waist circumference (≥98 cm) are related to deleterious health consequences among overweight and obese African-American women. Further research investigations should explore the purported inadequacy of the current standards of the BMI cutoffs of 25 to 30 or higher and a larger waist circumference in the assessment of overweight and obesity and in the prediction of health risks among African-American women. Moreover, this paper recommends an increase in within-group research studies on African-American women to more firmly establish the reliability and validity of the empirical evidence.

If Fat Liberation meant free the fat and get healthy, this would be a good thing. Healthy living people generally tend to use more soap than dead people. According to the Fat Liberation website (naturally, they have one.), Fat Liberation:

… is a social justice movement that works against anti-fat bias, oppression, and discrimination. Fat liberation is a radical alternative to body positivity – a movement based largely in appearance that is often appropriated by the mainstream – and affirms the value of all people, regardless of their weight or health. Fat liberation understands anti-fat bias and discrimination to have strong roots in anti-Black racism, colonialism, and classism, and that anti-fat bias and discrimination are routinely practiced without recrimination. Fat liberation seeks to identify and alleviate systemic anti-fat bias and individual prejudice, and to unlearn internalized fat bias and oppression. Fat liberation is a struggle tied to other intersectional struggles against oppression, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with struggles against racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, ableism, and others. Fat liberation not only seeks to normalize fat bodies, but to celebrate them.

She’s here to sell you soap. You buying? pic.twitter.com/uT7sA8uP4Y

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 14, 2023

Dove influencer Bryant is not just a Fat Liberation activist. No, too easy. Miss Zhyanna Bryant is a manipulative BLM liar. While a student at the University of Virginia Charlottesville, darling, young Zhyanna got statues taken down, she ruined the life of a White woman by the name of Morgan Bettinger, a senior at UVA. From Reason.com:

On July 17, 2020, Morgan Bettinger was driving home from work when she found that the road ahead was blocked by a large public works truck, with several dozen protesters gathering on the street behind it. The draft suit states that when she got out of her car to investigate, the truck driver initiated a casual conversation with her, during which Bettinger quipped something to the effect of, “It’s a good thing you’re here otherwise they could be made speed bumps.” The draft suit states that once the conversation was over, Bettinger walked around the truck and took a photograph of the protest.

As Bettinger began walking back to her car, protesters began taking an interest in her, following her to her car and shouting, taunting, and filming her. A few minutes later, another UVA student, prominent activist Zyahna Bryant, sent out several tweets claiming that Bettinger had driven around a series of police barricades and “approached protesters in Charlottesville and told us that we would make ‘good speed bumps.'”
However, the draft lawsuit contends that “Bryant did not personally hear Ms. Bettinger’s comments to the truck driver” and that “Bryant first learned of the speed bump comment from a third party.” Regardless, Bryant’s claims stoked student outrage, receiving over 1,000 retweets and leading to a flurry of calls for students to lobby the administration to expel Bettinger.

In the months that followed, Bettinger would be subject to a litany of investigations into her alleged conduct. The first investigation, from the University Judiciary Committee (UJC), UVA’s completely student-run dispensary system, found Bettinger guilty of “threatening the health or safety” of UVA students and sanctioned her to do 50 hours of community service, meet three times with a professor meant to teach her about “police community relations,” write an apology letter to Bryant, and expulsion in abeyance (meaning that Bettinger could continue her schooling, but if she was found guilty of a similar offense again, she would likely be expelled.)

While the UVA Inquisitors punished Bettinger, they agreed with her version of the situation. The big truck was there to protect the protestors and she did not direct her comment at Bryant or any other Black person. But wait, there’s more:

After her student-run trial, Bettinger was also subject to a second investigation, this time from UVA’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR), which considered claims by Bryant that Bettinger had harassed Bryant on the basis of her race.
The draft lawsuit claims that, during the EOCR investigation, Bettinger—who is openly pro-police—was subject to an “extended inquisition into her views and opinions of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement,” bringing concerns that investigators were biased against her.
Bettinger’s counsel raised a formal objection to the line of questioning. “Anyone evaluating the allegations against Morgan must not consciously or unconsciously make decisions based on how closely Morgan’s views on BLM (or any related topic) align with their own…. Moreover, the BLM movement is one of the most prominent issues in the public discourse today. People have a wide array of views on it. Questioning Morgan on her views on it chills speech since it suggests that her guilt or innocence, penalty or lack thereof, will be contingent in some way on her expressing a favored political view.”
The draft lawsuit also reveals the considerable emotional impact of Bryant’s allegations and the subsequent investigations through extended excerpts from one of Bettinger’s EOCR interviews.
“I have sleepless nights and I’ve had to be prescribed medication to be able to sleep anymore,” Bettinger told investigators. “I had to up my therapy to speak with my counselor because this had just gotten so much. It finally broke me a little bit ago. It’s just not okay for someone to get away with to keep doing this.”
Despite concerns of bias, the EOCR investigation—which finished in June 2021—ultimately cleared Bettinger, not only finding that she did not harass Bryant, but also uncovering serious flaws in Bryant’s allegations. Contrary to Bryant’s claims that she personally witnessed Bettinger threaten protesters, the EOCR investigation concluded that it was “more likely than not” that Bryant never heard Bettinger make a “speed bumps” remark at all.

Never heard Bettinger. Ruined a young woman’s life to make herself a hero of the struggle. The only hero here is Morgan Bettinger. Where is her lucrative influencer campaign? Morgan’s abuser is just as self-righteous as ever:

Dove teamed up with this fat liberation activist after she staged a hate hoax at UVA that got a white student expelled. Now she claims to be marginalized while in reality she has all the power. pic.twitter.com/KiK7rmd8hm

— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) September 14, 2023

Holey Moley! Does she have the lingo down or what? Centering, voices, spaces! Dove is partnering with Fat Liberation? Size Freedom! Dove should be centering the voice of Morgan Bettinger instead of her abuse.

Shame on Dove. Shame on the entire brand management team. They out to find out what the Bud Light crew is doing.

Featured Image: Mike Mozart/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons