The Campaign for Conventional Beauty?

"I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul."

Dove has spearheaded an ad campaign called the Campaign for Real Beauty. (Which I am not linking to due to the decidedly untznius women featured on the Web site. Be forewarned.) The ads - if you haven't seen them - include a few women dressed only in white underwear. The women are not all the typical size 2 models that you see on ads. They are regular sized, but models nonetheless.

The point of the ads is that we don't have to believe what society believes is beautiful. We don't have to conform to conventional ideas about beauty. However all the women in the ad are conventionally beautiful! They may not be super-skinny, but they are all very clearly models. They all have great skin (though this is not so weird since Dove is trying to sell skin products), they all hvae great smiles, beautiful faces...

If we want to change the way people view beauty, change conventional beauty, and make it very clear that people are beautiful for who they are inside, then we have to make the point that you don't have to be skinny, but you also don't have to be a model. Real beauty is a reflection of who you are inside, it's not about a few women in white underwear on a billboard.