Aerie Campaign/Body Image

http://www.policymic.com/articles/79647/american-eagle-won-t-photoshop-models-but-this-isn-t-what-girls-really-look-like

This is a link to a text which provides criticism about the new American Eagle advertising campaign associated with their lingerie line Aerie. Aerie is supposed to be targeting young women around the ages of 15-25 years old. This rhetor criticizes the new campaign for essentially being a fake attempt at real beauty advertising. The advertisements can be seen with the quotes "the girl in this photo has not been retouched the real you is sexy" followed by #aeriereal where you can continue on the conversation about this new advertising campaign via twitter. Nina Ippolito, the rhetor in my discussion argues that this campaign is shallow in the sense that although it shows imperfections and does not utilize photoshop (or at least to the extent which the fashion industry is used to), it does not truly represent what women look like. The author argues that "this isn't what girls really look like" and states that American Eagle should have gone full-out with this campaign showing WOMEN (even though this campaign is aimed at girls) who are hirsute (being incredibly hairy), disabled, pregnant, having given birth, vitiligo, transwomen, and having acne. I personally feel as though Aerie actually took a step in the right direction. They show girls of different shapes and sizes and hair types. They show moles and tattoos and stretch marks. Things that I know to be very common. I feel as though what they are being charged with is unfair in the sense that they are not a martyr. They are still trying to sell clothes, not an idea. To be honest, I don't think that showing teenagers who have given birth is really who they are trying to sell to, and things like hirsute, vitiligo, and physical disabilities are small minorities that they don't have the responsibility to try and represent. There is a fine line between showing real women, and showing extreme minorities for the sake of making a point, and Aerie is not necessarily trying to make a point they are simply trying to meet the demands of society to represent more diverse body types. Why would society not support this step in the right direction when it comes to female advertising, in hopes that yes it will better itself in the future. Advertising companies are not perfect but they are trying. One area of critique I would like to offer to Aerie however I feel is much more realistic of a request that would not necessarily draw away from the fact that they are trying to sell a product, not people. Aerie represent more women of color, and I'm not talking about just light-skinned black women and racially ambiguous yet almost white minorities. This is an area that I truly feel as though they should have and could have addressed, but they really missed by a long-shot.

My point here is, fashion labels should not be charged with and expected to represent every small minority or disability. The fact is that everyone has small differences that makes them who they are, but with advertising I think it is more important to try to represent people on more of a broad basis. When it comes to lingerie advertising I think body diversity and ethnic diversity are important areas that could be addressed respectfully. Why would they need to go beyond their audience?