Aerie's Unretouched Ads 'Challenge
Supermodel Standards' For Young Women
Looks like aerie is ready for its
closeup -- its unretouched
closeup.
Aerie, American Eagle's sister
store for lingerie, has launched
aerie Real, a Spring 2014 ad
campaign featuring all
unairbrushed models. In a
release on Friday, aerie
announced that the ads are
"challenging supermodel
standards by featuring
unretouched models in their
latest collection of bras, undies
and apparel."
Spotlighting models sans
Photoshop is a powerful move
that most fashion brands, not to
mention fashion magazines,
rarely make. (Notable
exceptions, made all the more
so due to their infrequency,
include Marie Claire's 2010
cover with Jessica
Simpson,Cate Blanchett on the
cover of Intelligent Life in
2012 and Verily Magazine's
total ban on all airbrushing.)
But aerie's decision to show its
models in all their real,
unretouched glory makes an
even stronger statement
because of who its customers
are. The brand, founded in
2006, is aimed at the 15-21
year old demographic, meaning
young women in high school
and college. And it's widely
held -- and proven by
numerous studies and surveys
-- that young women's sense of
body confidence is so often
influenced by the images of
female beauty they see in
media.
By:Ellie
Krupnick
One ad campaign won't solve
the complicated relationship
between young women's selfesteems and images of women
in media. But when a brand
beloved by teen girls shows off
its cute bras and undies on
bodies with real rolls, lines and
curves, it can certainly help.
CITATION: http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/
aerie-unretouched-adsphotos_n_4618139.html