One of the very few bright spots in these tumultuous first days of Donald Trump's presidency are the reactions of major brands that have been trickling in all week, and as inspiring as they have been, there is no doubt that Dove's new "alternative facts" ad is by far the most hilarious.
In case you are not up to speed with ~alternative facts~, the most aggressively meme'd term of 2017, the words were made infamous by Trump's advisor Kellyanne Conway. When Chuck Todd of NBC's "Meet the Press" asked Conway about press officer Sean Spicer's wildly inaccurate inauguration attendance claims (he claimed, "this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period" in the aftermath), Conway gave a rather ... creative answer.
"You're saying it's a falsehood," said Conway about the claims. "And they're giving — Sean Spicer, our press secretary — gave alternative facts."
"Alternative facts aren't facts, they are falsehoods," Todd responded.
And in that moment, the distant Twitter rumblings began to sound through the atmosphere, luring all of the fact checkers and snark masters to their keyboards, where the phrase "alternative facts" was trending within the day. The meme spread far and wide, casting glorious shade across social media.
But perhaps the boldest (and frankly, unexpected??) response came from Dove, which placed a two page "alternative facts" advertisement designed by Ogilvy London in news publications in the U.K. (Never not bitter about being an ocean away from this sass, y'all.) And needless to say, in terms of alternative facts, Dove more than delivered.
This is too perfect for my eyes.
Here's a fact that is far from alternative: Dove is doing the good work.
As Ad Week points out, this is not the first time a subsidiary of Unilever poked fun at Trump in advertisements, a recent example being a Pot Noodles ad that seemed to imply that if Trump could be president, literally anyone could. Here's hoping there's more quality content like this to come — and that this print ad hits the states soon, where we need it most.
In the meantime, if anyone needs me, I'll be rolling around in Dove perspirant, chugging endless Starbucks, and summoning Lyft rides all over the city. (#RESIST.)
