Real beauty, real impact? Exploring the effects of body-positive advertising on female adolescents (2009)

Undergraduate: Virginia McIlwain

Faculty Advisor: Jane Brown
Department: Journalism & Mass Communication

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In recent years, corporations like Dove, the Body Shop and Nike have turned more frequently to “body-positive” advertising, which features real-looking women of all shapes and sizes, in an attempt to send positive messages about the widening definition of beauty to female consumers. Many of these campaigns have specifically targeted young women in hopes that they will educate themselves about the possible effects of recurrent exposure to the stereotypical images of beauty found in today’s society. This study explored the relationship that exists between body-positive advertising and adolescent girls’ body images and examined whether such advertisements affect the way this group interacts with and responds to these stereotypical images of beauty in advertising. Ten adolescent girls participated in an online focus group and were asked to respond to a series of discussion questions about their body images, thoughts on “negative” advertisements and reactions to a variety of body positive media. The findings suggest that, though body-positive advertisements and media may have a fairly positive effect on adolescent girls’ body images in the short-term, they do relatively little to help change these girls’ interactions with and responses to the stereotypical, idealized images of beauty seen often in more traditional advertising campaigns.