Dove Demonstrates How Perception of Beauty is Distorted

Steve Hall at adrants points to a new Dove campaign that demonstrates how an average looking woman is transformed, with make-up, hair, lighting and, of course, Photoshop, into a gorgeous but very unreal creature.

Hall asks:

"Are we devaluing the appreciation of human beings by turning them into beautiful but freakishly unreal versions of themselves? Do we as an industry owe it to society to stop perpetuating the myth of beauty and its seeming importance over every other human attribute?" Umm, yes.

Has the ad industry gone too far toward making paunchy middle-aged men think that they should age but women should not? Mmm hmmm.

Kudos to Dove for their recent real women campaigns, and for their Self Esteem Workshops.

mmm... It sounds a lot like, and a very similar concept of the Walmart "mirror" that has been circulating on the web... It IS gettting close to Halloween October 31st. Beware of any DOVE fire-sales at your local Walmart?

Be Afraid.Be very afraid ...of the girl next door?
Bob

"Has the ad industry gone too far toward making paunchy middle-aged men think that they should age but women should not? Mmm hmmm."

Not that I'm in the business of defending lecherous old guys, but I think that many paunchy middle-aged men understand that women should age as much as they should and we can't blame advertising for the fact that these men still like younger women.

Everyone, middle-aged or no, paunch or no, is looking to net the most attractive partner they can. I know many middle-aged paunchy women who are as attracted to young partners as much as any men are -- your comment on the men's age and paunchiness reflects something like this.

By calling out the paunchiness of these older men and their choice of partners, you are feeding into the same superficial vanity that you claim to deplore AND giving the ad industry WAYYYY too much credit.

The Dove ad campaign is cool, I'm not saying it isn't, but advertising doesn't "distort" our perceptions of beauty. It takes advantage of them. At the end of that Dove ad, it is still the "enhanced" picture on the billboard next to the skin cream. Nothing has changed, except that the ad has created a false impression that Dove as a brand values morally-superior inner beauty over its external counterpart. They get to claim the high-ground while reaping all the benefits of the standard ad pitch.

It's a genius campaign, but basically the definition of "disingenuous."