Summer of Dove

Even if you haven't seen Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty," you've probably heard about it. The ads promote a new line of skin-firming creams and feature six "regular" women of varying sizes and ethnicities cheerfully posing in plain white underwear. The curvy nonmodel models were introduced by Dove in June, but newspapers across the country are still simmering with dueling diatribes about Dove's selection of women who are neither skinny nor camouflaged in sexy clothes. Everyone seems to have an opinion about whether the women are a revolutionary rejection of the superthin media ideal, or just nice girls who are too chubby to be up on billboards wearing next to nothing.

Dove marketing director Kathy O'Brien says that the company wants the ads to "change the way society views beauty," and "provoke discussion and debate." They have certainly succeeded in provoking people. There is a surprising amount of hostility in some reactions to the ads. Lucio Guerrero, a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times who was apparently offended by the sight of the ads on his commute, wrote on July 19: "Really, the only time I want to see a thigh that big is in a bucket with bread crumbs on it." Guerrero may have won himself a spot as the Ann Coulter of ad commentary, but there were also critical remarks by some female writers indignant because Dove had the nerve to sell anti-cellulite potions while saying that women should feel beautiful just the way they are.

With the word fat being used so liberally in national publications (where did political correctness go?), the campaign could also be in danger of creating a backlash that hurts its efforts to change the wafer-thin definition of attractive. After hearing a spate of derisive critiques of these models, will the many women who are the same size as the Dove girls be any more comfortable in a bathing suit? Experts on female body image, like Ann Kearney-Cooke, coauthor of "Change Your Mind, Change Your Body" ( Atria ), say that despite the controversy, the ads are a positive thing. "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 ultrathin image, but I think we have to hang in there."

Meanwhile, Slate.com's Seth Stevenson says that the campaign, noble or not, is bad business because eventually it will doom Dove as the "brand for fat girls." But are these women fat? Or, are we just we so conditioned by Victoria's Secret-style bodies that a size 8 looks big? Dove says their models are in their 20s and range from size 6 to size 12. The average American woman is somewhere between a 12 and 14 according to a 2004 survey by SizeUSA (a project sponsored by Target and JCPenney stores among others). This puts the Dove girls on the smaller side of normal. And certainly, one would assume that no one is calling them "fat" in their other lives as teachers, wives and cafe baristas .

The shock value of Dove's reality ads might have more to do with the way the campaign was shot than the weight of the models. While photographer Ian Rankin may have been going for a refreshing, natural look, the unretouched photos turned out to be the equivalent of full-length passport shots of women in what looks like underwear meant for jogging. One has to ask whether even celebrity beauties like Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce Knowles, or Kate Winslet would inspire the same harsh critiques under those less-than-flattering conditions.

Kearney-Cooke says that the fact that the women are not posed provocatively in alluring pushup bras is precisely why the ads are so good for female self image. "What I love is that these women look like they're having fun. They're connected to each other and they don't look like objects--which is important since objectification can lead to violence against women."