Fat Is an Advertising Issue

            Susie Orbach’s daunting task to persuade the makers of Dove beauty products to embrace the Campaign for Real Beauty was a challenge she was up for. She uses the same argument for Unilever that she does on the reader of this article. Not only is she trying to convince Unilever that this campaign is beneficial, but she is also trying to convince the reader that this campaign benefits them. I agree that this campaign was necessary for the attempt at changing the way young women view themselves, however it may be a bad marketing strategy. It is necessary to change the negative affect advertisements have on young women, however because of preconceived ideas and standards of beauty, it is impossible to permanently change that affect.

            For whatever reason, beauty is viewed a certain way in advertisements. Our society has set the standard of beauty extremely high because of the way models are portrayed. Orbach presents many alarming statistics and knowledge about the impact advertisements have on women and girls. In Fiji in 1995 after the introduction of TV, “11.9% of adolescent girls were puking into the toilet bowl trying to change their Fijian build into one that resembled the Western images they were imbibing via their TV sets.” Orbach also presents the astonishing fact that one in four college females has a serious eating problem. I agree with Orbach about the need for change and the need to open the eyes of so many companies’ leaders about the affect their advertisements have on their daughters, wives, sisters and nieces. I however think that it is nearly impossible to completely change the way companies advertise products through models and celebrities. Because that is impossible, it is impossible to completely alter the affect those advertisements have on the people viewing them. As long as the advertisements are the same, the possible negative affect will be the same; society has been sculpted that way. Society has an extremely narrow idea of beauty that is incredibly hard to transform.

            Susie Orbach argues that if Dove could perfect this tool of marketing, other companies would want to use the idea of ‘real beauty’ as well, as appose to the typical strategy of using the skinny, unrealistic models. The task to change all views of beauty is impossible. Companies will continue to use what society has everyone believing is ‘beautiful.’ The models that society tells us are attractive will continue to book jobs. The Dove team has made an important step in helping young women have self-esteem, however the other side of the argument Orbach makes is that not all companies will change. Many companies are close-minded and not able to make the positive change.