Brea Jones

Much of my weekend has been spent working on my Web site, feet on ottoman, food when necessary, sunlight streaming from the backyard until it’s dark and television dulling the silence of my house.

But one thing grabbed my attention over and over: Dove (known for it’s popular “White” bar soap) has a television commercial advertising people visit a Web site promoting a line of products aimed at older women.

“Watch what we couldn’t show you on TV, then tell us what you think” is the disclaimer before a commercial of middle-aged women posing nude. The Web commercial could have been any television moisturizer commercial had the women been models and not 40-to-60-year-olds. There were no bare breasts, but it makes me wonder why Dove would spend money on television ads to direct middle-aged women to a niche Web site like doveproage.com. Clearly Dove could have put its commercial on television, had it wanted to. But this is a marketing ploy I haven’t seen much of before.

Does cross-platform advertising for Web sites work? Television stations, radio programs and newspapers all do it — go to our Web site to see photo galleries, video clips and more. But now that commercial advertisers are on the bandwagon, I wonder what is next, especially as political advertising for the presidential election draws near.

Will we see: “Go to joinrudy2008.com to get the dirt on Hillary Clinton we can’t show you on TV”?

As far as Dove goes, I went to the Web site, so it worked for me. And if you’re reading this, you probably did too.