Advertising, Beauty, and Self-Perception

We have a crisis in how our young people view themselves. Few young people have positive images of themselves and are unhappy with their bodies, and the way they are perceived by others. There are a few good things happening that I would like to highlight, one of them being the Campaign for Real Beauty by Dove. While it is good that to focus on what our culture defines as "beautiful" in terms of our bodies, this is only going skin-deep (pardon the pun).

If you want to see a great Catholic answer to this problem, aimed at girls, check out Demand Your Dignity. This gets to the much deeper answer, and one that doesn't remain on the surface, as Dove does.

Also, we cannot forget the other side of the equation - boys who will be men soon - and as men we need to make sure we vigilant about how we see women. We need to train our young people to know their worth. We are all worthy of love. Love from God and love from others. We are built for it.

Below are 2 of the videos from Dove which show the power of images and marketing. While I fully support the message of the videos, remember that while pointing out problems with todays advertising, Dove is advertising. Also, Dove and Axe (one of the worst purveyors of sex in the world of modern marketing) are owned by the same parent company! Talk about hypocrisy.