viz.

Those Axe ads. But I agree with dorothysnarker that you can't blame Dove for Axe's sins. The ads are likely the products of different marketing firms, or at the very least, different teams within the ad agencies.

I wonder, though, what 30 Rock has to do with Dove or Axe?

Sorry :)

In the clip, Jenna, one of the leads on a TV variety show, has gained some weight. Her boss, Liz, tries to argue that she shouldn‘t be treated differently because she is no longer a super-skinny waif. However, Liz slowly finds that she is alone in this opinion after Jenna’s popularity skyrockets when, having embarrassed herself during a live broadcast, she blurts out the instantly popular line “me want food,” which had been insultingly suggested to her at the beginning of the clip by an insensitive writer on the show. The next day, upset that so much attention is being paid to Jenna’s weight, Liz very seriously comments “You just can’t be a real woman in this country. God! It’s like those Dove commercials never even happened.”

It’s a great joke, lampooning Liz’s politically-correct—and Dove’s purely commercial—sanctimoniousness.

See, that's why I needed to watch the clip with the volume on. Ahem. Because, really? Sometimes you need more than just the visual.

Maybe sanctimonious is the wrong word, but I’m still warry of Dove’s motives, since, as you say, their basic motive is to sell things.

And by “warry” I mean “wary.”