If you haven’t noticed, there’s a LOT of scuttlebutt as of late about the airbrushing and touching up of models – women, in particular – in magazine and print ads.
Some people are totally OK with it.
Some people are REALLY against it.
I’m somewhere in the middle. I’m certainly not going to go picket outside Victoria’s Secret about their overzealous penchant for the {often times} extreme Photoshop-ing that they do of their models. But, then again, I’m fairly certain I can tell when half of someone’s thigh has been erased – I work with Photoshop a LOT and know all about the joys – and pitfalls – of “touching up”.
You know who DOESN’T know about such things, though? Young, impressionable girls. Girls who – as is often the case – look at models in magazines and then look at themselves…and see nothing but failure.
Don’t believe me? Consider this:
“42% of girls in grades 1-3 want to be thinner. 78% of 17-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies. 30% of high-school girls and 16% of high-school boys have an eating disorder. Teenage girls are reportedly ‘more afraid of gaining weight than getting cancer, losing their parents, or nuclear war.'” (source: pbs.org)
It’s not a wonder this is an issue for young girls – or adult women, for that matter. For instance, check out the following:
This is the same model. On the left, in a runway show. On the right, in an aggressively Photoshopped print advertisement. If this is what girls are seeing as ideal, is it no wonder that they’re more afraid of gaining weight than of getting cancer??? It’s unattainable because it’s not real; however, in the conflicted, insecure mind of a young girl, “rationality” often times is about as unattainable as a 16″ waist.
Taking into consideration all of the above, Aerie – the swimwear and loungewear division of American Eagle – began its “Aerie Real” campaign in 2014, which only uses untouched (eg, no Photoshop) photos of models in its ads. Are the models still “pretty”? Of course. But what they aren’t is devoid of all of the things that make them who they are in real life. Like…
…tattoos…
…or a bit of cellulite…
Or {gasp} a shocking lack of “thigh gap”.
Why has this campaign been so incredibly successful for Aerie? Well, mainly because they’ve chosen their target audience – that being teenage girls and young women – and are aiming their marketing directly at them. In fact, after switching the way in which they portray their models, Aerie states that they’ve seen a 10% jump in revenue.
“The purpose of ‘Aerie Real’ is to communicate there is no need to retouch beauty, and to give young women of all shapes and sizes the chance to discover amazing styles that work best for them,” Aerie’s brand president, Jennifer Foyle, said in a statement in 2014. (source: businessinsider.com)
If you’re interested in creating a marketing campaign as unique as your business – something that really sets you apart from the rest – give us a call! Transformation Marketing works hard to ensure that all of our clients receive beautifully designed campaigns, and are able to provide full-service marketing – be it via website design, social media, traditional print advertisements, TV or radio – to all of our clients.