Unilever has been busily positioning itself as the Goody Two-Shoes of the commercial world over the past decade or so and now it’s made this ad (more corporate film actually), ‘Bright Future,’ putting its sustainable cards on the table. With Dove, Domestos and Persil taking centre stage.
Unilever claims that this positioning, in some cases through tie-ups with the likes of UNICEF, has helped its big brands (others include Knorr and Hellman’s) to grow faster than the market average. Which may be true: it seems to be outperforming the likes of age-old rival Procter & Gamble while RB (formerly Reckitt-Benckiser) has slowed.
But are we really headed for a brave new world, with children supported, educated and empowered by brands?
Depends on the brands I guess. You look at the corporate world as a whole and see Apple’s Tim Cook (Steve Jobs’ successor without the charisma) describing the EU’s demand that his company pays tax as “total political crap” and you wonder.
Still, Unilever hasn’t been accused of any such things – as yet. It had better not be.
MAA creative scale: 4.
