Tag Archives: Dove Real Beauty campaign

A Breath of Fresh Aerie

aerieREALThere’s a new real beauty advertising campaign on the rise by American Eagle apparel’s lingerie line, Aerie. Its spring 2014 advertisements will not be featuring Photoshop retouched images. (Cue happy dance.)

Aerie seems to be taking their lead from Dove’s Real Beauty campaign who took a risk and cannonballed into the deep end of the body image pool 10 years ago, and fortunately surfaced with numerous viral advertisements that are changing the way women view themselves.

What makes Aerie different? It’s young. Founded in 2006, Aerie is aimed at the high school and college female demographic. Females between the ages of 15-21 are the most impressionable when it comes to their sense of body image and these self-opinions are often dictated by what is seen in the media.

Aerie hopes to make women feel confident about the body they’re rockin’ and is asking them to participate by tagging photos of themselves using the hashtag #AerieREAL. Because “the real you is sexy.” (oh, snap!)

Though the ads still feature beautiful girls with model-like features: hourglass figures, legs-for-days, blemish-free faces, it still beats the alternative where images are digitally sculpted and shaped by the strokes of an (air) brush.

What do you think about Aerie’s real campaign? Good idea? Bad idea? Marketing ploy?

Let me know in the comments!

Fact: You Are Beautiful

Dove does it again. With only 4% of women around the world thinking they are beautiful I believe this video did its job to promote positive body image and prevent self-hate.
This video tugs at the heart strings and shows that we are our toughest critiques.

Dove took a trained FBI forensic artist to sketch portraits of the women, who were hidden behind a curtain, based on their own descriptions of their facial features. The second part of the experiment was to have others describe those same women and compare the portraits side-by-side. The differences were alarming. Often the portrait where the woman described herself was darker in shading, had poor or closed off posture, and was older than the actual woman in real life. The portraits where others described the woman were lighter and vibrant, younger, and in my opinion more accurate of the actual woman.
Now I want Dove to do this campaign with younger girls around five or six years-old, super models and shoot why not go for it all and do this experiment with men?
Today I want each of you reading this (yes, you too guys) to stop the self-hate and start to realize that you are beautiful. Let’s beat the statistic. Positive thinking is powerful and how you view yourself affects how others, in all aspects of your life, view you. So make the promise to yourself because you deserve it, because you are beautiful, because you are you!
Repeat after me: I am beautiful!
I can’t hear you!: I AM BEAUTIFUL.
Oh yes, yes you are! Git it girl!