LO1: Analysis of the Cartoon Network x Dove Self-Esteem Project Campaign

I believe the primary target audience for the Cartoon Network x Dove Self Esteem Project is a mixed gender audience between the ages of 8 and 21 who struggle with body confidence issues and enjoy cartoons. The campaign itself features well known characters from the Steven Universe franchise who are easily identifiable to those who enjoy the animation genre, meaning that the adverts would be more appealing to this audience as they feature recognisable and collectively enjoyed figures. Moreover, the audience of the franchise is 8-15 year olds, meaning that this fraction of the audience will likely be exposed to the campaign through this association. As for the upper bracket of my theorised target audience, I believe 16-21 year olds will be in the target demographic for this campaign as they are the age group who, statistically, suffer the most from low self esteem. Also, 16-25 year olds claim that body image issues are the third most prominent issues causing harm to young people. As a large portion of the demographic fit into this section, I believe that this contributes to their targetting for the campaign. Whilst I believe the target audience of the project is a mixed gender one, I do think it has a more female lean. This is due to the context that 46% of girls in the age bracket admit to having a negative body image, compared to the 25% of boys who admit the same. Furthermore, only a diverse range of women are present within most of the promotional material, evidencing that the campaign was created with them in mind since it gives girls of all ages in the target frame a point of representation. Countering this, the Steven Universe franchise garners a dominantly male audience, which is likely the cause of the push for mixed gender marketing.

The key message of the campaign is to promote a healthy, positive body image to the audience by discussing topics such as bullying, media influence and self image. They cover how one views their own body, how others view their bodies and how everyone can affect one another with body image. It pushes a heavy “be you” mentality. I think the project set up this campaign in order to correctly target the audience they believe is most in need of it – the 8-15 year old demographic – whilst still leaving it open to the possibility of reaching other audiences. The campaign itself is an attempt to promote and almost rebrand tackling mental health and body image discussion in a way that a younger age group can comprehend.

Celebrity endorsement is amongst the methods of advertising used. Whilst no celebrities are physically present in the campaign, voice actors of the series are present in all video “episodes” of the campaign along with the coupling music video. This makes the project appeal more to the audience of the original cartoon in the collaboration, which is the intended audience that Dove wishes to support, as it denotes iconic characters that are known to appeal to them. They use these characters, who are pre-established as role models (in spite of their established imperfections), to encourage the audience garnered from the cartoon to aspire to the messages that they share, portraying them as ideal selves/partners since they’re heroic protagonists (or antiheros, however they are all still connoted to be fighters for “good”). Moreover, the combination of characters and cast denoted in the campaign are all a diverse range of ethnicities, body types and identities, which ensures that everyone is included and has a representation within the campaign. Whilst there is no specific slogan or tagline for the project, a music video was released alongside the campaign called We Deserve to Shine which a song about body confidence. This song includes references to all topics discussed over the campaign and also features hit artist Estelle singing, alongside her speaking roles in the rest of the episodic adverts.

Each advert has a different visual theme, with every episode having a different colour scheme depending on the character featured. However, each one is bright and vibrant, connoting that the issues discussed within the video should be seen as a positive and freeing topic instead of something demonised in the way it typically is by the media. It strives to break the stigmatising mould that has been set by other productions as can be connoted by the challenged stereotypes (such as women and characters of colour in idealistic self/partner roles).

Cartoon Network airs all of the episodes of the project in-between their ident and general advertisements, alongside their sponsors. Whilst this is an effective distribution method for the message they wish to carry, they also have set up a website alongside this on which an interactive and self-inserting short story can be formed. This immersive method of promotion is extremely effective, especially when used on the younger, more impressionable 8-15 year old bracket as this group has a statistically broader imagination and will therefore greater appreciate fictional content in which they are involved. Using this way of advertisement also contributes to a typical use and gratification of media products, providing a realm of escapism.

The Dove Self-Esteem Project has been in service since 2004, however this collaboration occurred in early-to-mid 2018. In the year prior to this time, CN premiered several new shows that remain popular to this day and are actually some of their most popular. Moreover, body confidence had cropped up to be a hot topic over the course of 2017 and 2018, with celebrities such as Kelly Clarkson, P!nk and Zendaya clapping back against stigmas with their own statements and inputs on the matter. Body confidence and self image is deemed a topic that has only been truly discussed in the past few years and CN/Dove were at the forefront of this fight in terms of the younger and more easily influenced audience. Moreover, each episode includes a link to the “Self-Esteem Guide” that is actually being promoted, using only up to date research from within the last decade. The evidence described above not only evidences the need for the project they are advertising but also that they are greatly knowledgeable on what needs to be done.

The vitality of the campaign heavily relies on the development of technological convergence as every method of distribution is digital. The only traditionally distributed portion of the campaign would be the episodes of each topic which, whilst formatted and created for online viewing, have been converted to TV adverts and aired on Cartoon Network’s live broadcasts. This way of distributing the promotions is vital in the attraction of the target audience, but also ensures that a general mass audience is reached as they share an important message. However, Cartoon Network’s target audience is boys under 13, furthering the concept that the campaign is required to be shown to a younger group. Moreover, males are not typically brought into body confidence discussion and so this further proves the need for a challenged audience type with this campaign. The fact that the majority of materials from the promotions that were only accessible digitally (the Self-Esteem Guide, the We Deserve to Shine music video and the create your own story website) connotes that, whilst meant to be aimed at an international audience, the project is aimed at a specific audience that can be easily targetted through digital marketing. Furthermore, viral marketing aspects are also used through evidence of a hashtag (#ConfidentGirl) being created in order to garner a larger audience via sharing of the hashtag and banking on it falling into public favour. Another reason for which digital marketing is used is that, whilst specified that parents should be present during interaction, the majority of the target audience are digital natives and so a digitally marketed project is more likely to appeal.

A legal issue that the producers of the campaign would have to consider during production would be the copyright ties and consent forms surrounding the usage of an exterior company’s characters. Should Cartoon Network no longer wish to be associated with the Dove brand, the producers would have to ensure that they had physical evidence that CN had allowed for Dove to use the characters as a face for their project and when the permissions for this usage expired. They would have to ensure that new marketing materials could be created by this deadline or the threat of fines would be issued. Another legality that Dove and CN would have to make sure was secured would be that of the GDPR and making sure that specifically their website conformed to the requirements of this regulation. Since the website collects any extent of personal data, they would need to be certain this data was private and protected, only used for the purposes stated on the site. Should they violate these requirements, more fines and even requests for court appearance could be issued, depending on the severity of their violation. Moving on, an ethical issue in need of consideration would be ensuring representation is equal, fair and accurate. In the promotional material, photos denote girls of a range of races, which supports that they have considered this aspect, however there is a distinct lack of male representation throughout all of their advertising. As males are rarely presented in body positivity topics, this connotes that the producers favoured following stereotypes in this aspect, possibly to “play it safe” when discussing a theme that is quite taboo when talking to younger audience. Though, if their use of representation was deemed unsatisfactory by the public, this could easily result a loss of favour amongst the public and would be a sure way to a road to having their promotional campaign removed. Moreover, the entire discussion of body positivity aimed at a younger audience in itself would be another ethical issue for consideration. Ensuring that all topics covered were of acceptable standard and fact level would be vital for Dove and CN, otherwise their important and necessary points may be disregarded due a loss of credibility as a result of a poor standard of discussion and getting their message across.