We women are awful to ourselves. A man sees an attractive woman walk by and instinctively thinks about sex. A woman sees another woman walk by and she automatically compares herself to the other, often in a negative way — who is prettier, slimmer, has nicer hair, has better fashion sense? We can usually find something “wrong” with the other woman to make ourselves feel better — she has a little roll of skin hanging over the top of her low-cut pants, her teeth are crooked, her roots are showing. This negative self-comparison is especially true when looking at pictures of celebrities or models, but it’s harder to find the compensating imperfections in the professional photos (that’s why the National Enquirer and other checkout line tabloids are so popular – they show you what the celebs look like when they are being “real people” without makeup and airbrushes).
And this is why I’m fascinated by the latest entry in the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a short time-lapse film that shows the transformation of a somewhat plain everywoman to a gorgeous billboard model through makeup and Photoshop. I’ve watched it several times and find it reassuring to be reminded that the manufactured images of perfect beauty that surround us are not real — we cannot and should not compare ourselves to those pictures.
And beauty is such a cultural construct. The Dove campaign in China is quite different than in the US. Compare the women on this billboard in Shanghai (as photographed by Brian Sack of the humor site the Banterist, whose series of China travelogue posts was gut-bustingly funny and worth checking out)…
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
Nedra,
Thanks for sharing the Dove “face-changing” video. It’s quite eye-opening. No wonder so many woman have self-image issues.
Roger
Love that Chinese billboard….I’ll reference it on the Daily Fix,where a few writers have been discussing the Dove campaign. Thanks, Nedra!
Great post, insight and comparison. I read some of the comments and I understand that what the Chinese are grappling with is not “thinner” but “whiter”.
Interesting, eh? Amazing how everyone wants to be what they’re not when, in fact, they’re so beautiful. We have a long way to go here but I’m proud of Dove (and Italy and Spain for turning away 30% of the models from fashionweek as they were just “sickly”).
Thanks, Roger, Ann and CK. Very interesting that the issue in China is white skin. Beauty is such a culturally-based value. CK, I enjoyed your article about the campaign at MarketingProfs.com as well.
I am afraid you have misjudged the content of that billboard. That billboard is not part of the Campaign for Real Beauty. Rather, every single woman in that billboard is a Chinese film celebrity, including Sylvia Chang and Shu Qi. It is the opposite of the campaign in a sense, because these are the women Chinese female routinely compare themselves to.
The Campaign for Real Beauty (simply called “For Real Beauty” for legal reasons) stays away from the “fat or fabulous” theme and challenges other standards of beauty such as having small breasts (see this image– http://gsides.typepad.com/g_sides/images/naruchol2_2.jpg), having short hair, having grey hair, and having a boyish figure. For more information see http://thechinaventure.com/?p=63
I dunno…the dove ads still make me feel fat and worthless
why aren’t you addressing this topic to other parts of the country
and only china?
Your ignorance only amuses me, do you even have a clue what the chinese billboard was about?
Anon, if it’s something different from what has been mentioned by other commenters, why don’t you enlighten us?
If the greater part of America is overweight, then of course the models in the Dove commercial in America are going to be heftier than those seen in China, where obesity is not so much a problem.