Dove's 'Real Women' Must Be Naturally Fit With Nice Bodies

Update 6/29: A spokesperson for Dove told Stylelist, "Unfortunately, this casting notice was not approved by the brand or agency team and did not reflect the spirit of the brand team's vision. We appreciate that this has been brought to our attention, and we are taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future. We believe our images demonstrate that real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes, colors and ages and we remain committed to featuring realistic and attainable images of beauty in all our advertising."

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Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign touts itself as the "global effort launched in 2004 to serve as a starting point for societal change and act as a catalyst for widening the definition and discussion of beauty," and as supporting the DOVE mission: "to make more women feel beautiful every day by widening stereotypical views of beauty." But a Jezebel tipster came across a Craigslist ad announcing a print casting call that illustrates the exact width of Dove's view of beauty.

What do you think?

Comments

[MrOlympia]

07:58 AM on 07/01/2010

They look good to me.

[Riss19]

02:38 AM on 07/01/2010

you should have a fit nice body, but that can be very general, fit and nice can be a 2 to a 12....but just not FAT...which would mean excess cellulite and huge spare tires and double chins that's just unhealthy! When are ppl ever going to notice you can be fit and curvy, fit doesn't have to mean skinny! HELLO! jeez.

[panasonic52]

12:37 AM on 07/01/2010

There's nothing wrong with this ad. It's possible to be really curvy and be fit at the same time. I think calling for fit, curvaceous women is encouraging a healthy lifestyle: don't be afraid to have curves, but remain healthy at the same time.

The only part I have a problem with is asking for women without scars. Who the hell has perfectly flawless skin? If you do have it, I would imagine you didn't get out much as a kid lol

[Wendy Johnson]

08:30 AM on 07/02/2010

The only part I did understand was the part about having flawless skin. They're marketing skin care products, it only makes sense that perfect skin would be a must.

Other than that, jeez. For a campaign about "real women", they're sure doing a good job of narrowing the definition of "real".

[A Perfect World]

11:40 AM on 06/29/2010

Is this a hoax? Is this really coming from Dove or is someone trying to get a bunch of photos?

[johnr49]

01:30 PM on 06/29/2010

Looks like it's real:

http://www.dove.us/#/cfrb/

[johnr49]

01:44 PM on 06/29/2010

Sorry, I spoke too soon - comparing the ad with the Dove website, I'd say the ad's definitely bogus:

"The current focus of the Campaign for Real Beauty is aimed at raising the self esteem of girl and young women ........... The program is designed to build self-confidence in girls 8-17 with education resources and hand-on activities."

http://www.dove.us/#/CFRB/arti_CFRB.aspx[cp-documentid=7049726]

[Womanvoter4Obama]

06:47 PM on 06/29/2010

Its real. I got a casting call tomorrow.

[boilinabag]

10:22 AM on 06/29/2010

bout time, am i the only one who thinks that a size 0 looks unfit? curvylisious..........

[equianimi]

09:23 AM on 06/29/2010

I'm confused about this or maybe I just don't get modeling... but does anyone really have flawless skin all over? I mean no scars?? What would that person have done as a kid? If you don't get at least a couple scars then you haven't lived.

[panasonic52]

12:27 AM on 07/01/2010

exactly! I was more surprised at that line. I have so many scars from sports injuries or just stupid mistakes I've made. They can't tell me that they don't use photoshop to at least smooth out tiny "flaws" like that.

[hershobr]

09:00 AM on 06/29/2010

This is discrimination against skinny, tall, hot models!

[seajewel]

09:42 AM on 06/29/2010

Actually, you are correct. Sigh...

[robjh1]

08:55 AM on 06/29/2010

No skinny girls for this contest.

[anotherscott]

08:38 AM on 06/29/2010

Oh, it's for soap? I thought it was for chocolate.

[JoeyPolanski]

08:33 AM on 06/29/2010

Can't wait for the reality show, "Dove-Girl Rejects Makeover."

[Mental Revolution AWAKE]

07:59 AM on 06/29/2010

@Kember, very true. I'm 30 and I excercise 4-5 times out of the week. I have cellulite. Cellulite is more genetic than anything else. No amount of excercise or surgerycan get rid of it. Now, photoshopping on the other hand can, but then I would be a really fake woman in my pictures. That's not who I am. :)

[ReesieKitty]

03:05 PM on 06/29/2010

True, even very thin women, movie stars, etc. have cellulite- you just usually don't get to see it in pictures! Lol, its just a reality, especially after you hit a certain age or have a baby. It doesn't mean you aren't in shape, healthy, attractive, etc.

[vain jane]

01:33 AM on 06/30/2010

I'm with you girls. It's hormonal. I had it when I was seventeen, 184cm tall and 62kg of weight. There's no shame in it. Marilyn Monroe had plenty. :)

[maru67]

02:37 AM on 07/02/2010

Yep, I've always had cellulite, even when I weighed 100 lbs in high school, and when I gained 28 lbs of muscle in US Army basic training.

[sofrito]

10:48 PM on 07/14/2010

Thank you for your service.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

07:57 AM on 06/29/2010

Good grief, they are ultimately selling soap. If they photographed women with acne for their ads it wouldn't be much of a selling point for their soap.

AND they are saying that average and plus sized is as beautiful as thin. They aren't saying that coach potatoes with bad skin are beautiful.

[jessicadevyn]

07:05 AM on 06/29/2010

Have nothing against the modelling campaign (though I would be too young and skinny to fit). I do have issues with people claiming that anorexia is caused by ads. Anorexia is a psychological disease with a strong genetic link. Ads can't cause anorexia anymore than they can cause Bipolar Type 1 or OCD.

[adica]

11:54 PM on 06/30/2010

I strongly disagree with the above post.The media has for decades been putting beautiful,extremely thin,air-brushed women in advertisements.Young girls feel inferior because very few can match up to these unrealistic expectations..Anorexia was not a huge problem 70 or &0 years ago.Adolescence is confusing enough to go through without constant media bombardment.,telling girls they need certain clothes or makeup to be good enough.

[jessicadevyn]

07:56 AM on 07/01/2010

Few mental disorders outside full blown schitzophrenia were recognized 70+ years ago. Anorexia and bullimia are coping tools much like self-injury or OCD rituals. It has been shown to have a strong genetic link just like most disorders.

[sofrito]

10:49 PM on 07/14/2010

The scientific literature disagrees with you.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

06:45 AM on 06/29/2010

More muck from Jezebel. This is a non-story. Dove's campaign is about expanding the view of women in the fashion/beauty industry to go beyond the typically tall, overly slim, overly made-up model look, to include heavier, shorter women, of all races and healthy sizes. The ad seems to be rejecting manufactured beauty like breast enlargement, face lifts, steriods, etc. The ad wants nice bodies of course, but as they said - "naturally."

Any campaign anywhere is going to want fit people with good skin and hair. Healthy looks...not obese and not sickly. I'm sorry, that's just the reality and no one wants to look at a woman in an ad who's hair is falling out or has a lot of scars or something. They simply want to photograph healthy women, not models.

[thewoolf]

10:16 AM on 06/29/2010

Hmmm....I have scars on my legs from childhood surgeries...I exercise daily and try to eat right. I didn't realize I wasn't healthy. Man, I need to rethink my self-perception. Thanks Dove and SYC!

[fortyfiveseventy]

04:29 AM on 06/29/2010

Do we have a photo of these ladies bare breasted? A couple of these gals look like they've got some nice hangers!