"Finally, Some Real Beauty to Admire"

Tracy Ewert

Lying on my star-studded comforter, my friends and I look at a magazine for the hottest fashion trends for this summer. We tell each other what would look good on who, have a discussion concerning who's cuter: Daniel Radcliff or Rupert Grint, and are shocked to find out that Nichole Riche is pregnant. Yeah right!

In the heat of the moment the girls scramble over to my great grandmother's dresser and start quickly putting new outfits together.

I leave them to their flurries of colors and mix-match making and take my attention back to the photo of the beautiful cover girl. An ache comes to my heart and for seconds I think how my life would be perfect if I were just prettier or slimmer.

Trying not to completely depress myself, I flip the page to yet another ad, but this time the first thing I think of isn't how horrible I look, it's how amazing the ad is.

'Real Beauty' Dove ads first came out in 2004 for one specific reason: of the thousands of women from ten different countries that Dove surveyed, only 2 percent believed themselves attractive and only 13 percent were happy with their body weight.

"By questioning the accepted definition of beauty, we hope to help women change the way they perceive their bodies and encourage them to feel beautiful every day," said Silvia Lagnado, Dove's Senior Vice President.

Ever since, Dove has been pumping out ad after ad that features all different aspects of beauty.

Real Women

Their most widely known ads are part of the 'Real Women' beauty campaign, featuring 6 ethnically and proportionally different women all in their 20s wearing plain white underwear; no push up bras, maximizing cleavage, no thongs, and no lace.

Instead of seductive, sultry, or another 's' word that has to do with sex, these models are simply having fun. As a result, their beauty shines through.

Did I mention that their bodies are also unfiltered? The photos of the women have apparently been untouched by airbrushing, finally providing females everywhere a true-to-life fashion icon.

Ann Kearney-Cooke, coauthor of "Change Your Mind, Change Your Body," says that the ads are positive. "This is a really courageous move by Dove and I hope it's going to pay off. There might be some strong reactions because they are going against years of this ultra thin image, but I think we have to hang in there."

Pro-Age

In further efforts to define pretty, Dove released their pro-age ads. Women 50 and older sit on the tops of billboards in New York naked, but coving private areas, smiling and laughing, proudly revealing their age spots, wrinkles, and cellulite.

'Beauty doesn't have an age limit' is Dove's catch phrase. For the women of the baby boomer generation, this comes as a welcome thought.

"It's nice," said one older woman I stopped on the street, "to not only have new role models for my grandchildren, but for me as well. It's nice to see that reality doesn't fit into a size zero anymore, it's not about taking a magic potion anymore for me to feel beautiful. I don't have to go back in time. I can be beautiful with every year."

Self-Esteem Fund

However, Dove also realizes that beauty doesn't stop at the skin, although that's what society values. That is why Dove has created the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. Low-self esteem affects all women regardless of ethnicity or age and can lead to anti-personality disorder or depression, therefore shrinking the future for these amazing women.

Maybe you have seen the Dove commercial with the little girls who believe their bodies aren't beautiful? The Self-Esteem Fund hopes to show every girl that they are beautiful by creating a positive self-image that will carry on into the next generation.

Check out their website (listed below) for workshop and donation opportunities, as well as a DVD you can get for your daughter about inner beauty.

Controversy

Not everyone supports Dove's ads. Some find them offensive. While on the Internet, I came across a recent Sun-Times article by Lucio Guerrero.

He writes, "One word comes to mind when I see those Dove ads - disturbing. And disturbing quickly morphs into frightening when I see the ad while waiting for the L at the Merchandise Mart. There - in all of their 4-foot-high glory - are the ladies of Dove more lifelike than I'd like to see in my advertising. Really, the only time I want to see a thigh that big is in a bucket with bread crumbs on it.

See, ads should be about the beautiful people. I see 'real people' all the time. I don't need 'real people' to sell me things. I'm a 'real person' and I don't want to see me on the side of a bus - and trust me, in my underwear neither do you. (And speaking of underwear, what's with the lingerie these women are wearing? It's like Sears catalog, circa 1983.)"

Well then Mr. Lucio Guerrero, if that's how you really feel, expect not to get laid in the next several years. Feel free to tell him the same by writing to the Sun Times. Here's his e-mail address: lguerrero@suntimes.com.

As a sixteen-year-old girl, I would like to say that I have never seen a company like Dove have so much appreciation for its customers. I can finally find one ad that doesn't make me have unreal fantasies.

Coming from someone who weighs only ninety-five pounds and still would like to take a few more inches off of her thighs and stomach, I can't tell you what a gift it is to actually have real women models in advertisements.

See more inspiring Dove ads at http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/