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Mr. Kees acknowledged the findings create something of a quandary for marketers, who might have a positive effect on young women's self-esteem by showing more typical women in ads, but suffer in the marketplace as a result. "I'd tend to be cautious about using models in advertising that wouldn't maximize the attitudes and evaluations of the advertising and the brands," he said. "Certainly [Dove is] getting a lot of publicity, and it's a great, innovative campaign. But in terms of the bottom line of how that might be impacting ... purchase behavior, I'm not sure." Appetite suppressant Mr. Kees said the professors landed on the Oreo tactic, in which study participants didn't know their post-ad-exposure cookie-eating would be monitored, as a way of studying real behavioral impact in addition to the usual survey responses regarding ads. The Dove Self-Esteem Fund, backed by its Campaign for Real Beauty, has exceeded its original goal of reaching 1 million young girls by this year and expanded its target to 5 million by 2010. The data shows a definite, if short-term, link between thin models in ads and eating behavior, but Mr. Kees said he wasn't comfortable making the leap that seeing thin models could cause eating disorders. Dove and its agency, Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto, weren't reluctant to connect those dots in their "Onslaught" viral video released last year, splicing scenes of yo-yo dieting and bulimia into a montage of beauty advertising. "That's a far stretch to infer an eating disorder from a one-time choice," Mr. Kees said, but added, "That's certainly a scenario that would be rich for future research." The new study in part concurs with and in part diverges from some prior research on the impact of thin models. Research reported in 2005 and 2006 from psychology professors at University of Sussex and University of West England in the U.K. concluded that ads featuring ultra-thin models do make women feel worse about their looks, but aren't any better at selling products than ads featuring more typically proportioned women. The Lower Chamber of France's Parliament earlier this year passed a law that would ban the use of ultra-thin models in ads, and authorities in Spain last year banned ultra-thin models from runways. Unilever also vowed to not use size-zero models in any of its advertising. Unilever stays the course In a statement, a spokesman for Unilever said the company believes its approach works. "Unilever is confident in the effectiveness of its advertising," he said. "We believe women have the right to feel comfortable with their bodies and not suffer from lack of self-esteem brought on by images of excessive slimness." Dove's campaign, he said, has "penetrated society and started a dialog about real beauty," adding that "we are thrilled by the overwhelming positive responses we have received from women (and men) as a result of the campaign."
Villanova School of Business 2008 Media Report