Short answers, pulled from the story.
American chemist Vincent Lamberti held the original patents for Dove while working for Lever Brothers during the 1950s. The brand's first product, the Dove Beauty Bar, launched in the United States during 1957.
The Dove Beauty Bar primarily uses sodium cocoyl isethionate or SCI as its main active ingredient. As of 1992, between 47% and 49% of each bar consisted of this expensive ingredient derived from coconuts.
Unilever briefly test marketed the product in Europe during the mid-1960s but decided against a full launch there at that time. The company officially introduced the brand to Europe starting with Italy in 1989.
Critics labeled the campaign hypocritical because Unilever also produced Axe advertising which used highly sexualized images of women. The brand claimed to celebrate diversity while facing accusations of promoting narrow beauty ideals elsewhere in its portfolio.
Lola Ogunyemi was the black woman featured in the commercial and she defended the brand against critics. She stated that the advert had been misinterpreted by the public rather than intentionally offensive.