Why just girls and women? EVERYONE is prey to advertising. Men too. There are ads all over Penn Station for Dockers with the message that "real men wear the pants", with lots of masculine visuals. I found that at least as offensive. Look at those Axe body spray commercials. It seems like all advertising aimed at men has the underlying message that "you will have more sex if you use our product." Not good for men OR women. Kids are bombarded with ads too. What will make you the coolest kid on the playground? Old people, young people, single people, hispanic people...every conceivable demographic is targeted by someone, somewhere, selling something. Dove's "real women" campaign is just a reversed way of preying on those insecurities. Their marketing department doesn't deserve any praise in my opinion, other than for being very clever and shrewd.
This is the world we live in. Sometimes I will see something that hits a nerve, but for the most part, you can't survive in our society if you don't learn to just keep calm and carry on.
I agree it is important to make people realize how advertising affects them, girls or not, but I don't really get this whole "real women" vs. skinny women debate that is constantly brewing. The fact that there even IS a debate shows that these marketing schemes work like a charm.
If I sound insensitive, I guess it's because I am. I work in a field closely intertwined with marketing and advertising. I know exactly what kind of discussions go on behind closed doors that inspire these ads. I can actually hear them in my head whenever I see a new marketing campaign. I guess this has helped me in some capacity.
As for the "real women" debate, no real woman is ever going to look just like me. I'm over it, frankly. I fall into neither category. Neither am I ultra slim and stick straight, nor am I overweight. I don't need models to look just like me because I know I don't represent all women. In the end, it's all about the clothes. I don't really care who is wearing them.
