Dove Firming Lotion Ads spark controversy

During recent days, there's been a lot of hub-bub regarding Dove's latest "Campaign for Real Beauty" ads for their firming lotion. One of the most interesting happened in Chicago. The Sun Times did a feature on the ads, and supposedly a "he said/ she said" piece as well. I say supposedly because there was only one journo credit on the piece. And apparently she only wrote the introduction, which is a background on the campaign and the new massive media buys. That "he said" portion was writen by Lucio Guerrero:

One word comes to mind when I see those Dove ads -- disturbing. And disturbing quickly morphs into frightening when I see the ad while waiting for the L at the Merchandise Mart. There -- in all of their 4-foot-high glory -- are the ladies of Dove more lifelike than I'd like to see in my advertising. Really, the only time I want to see a thigh that big is in a bucket with bread crumbs on it (rim shot here).

[...snip...] I get that it's all relative, but that's all the more reason why they shouldn't be on a billboard. See, ads should be about the beautiful people. They should include the unrealistic, the ideal or the unattainable look for which so many people strive. That's why models make so much money. They are freaks -- human anomalies -- who need to be paid to get photographed so we can gawk at them. I see "real people" all the time. I don't need "real people" to sell me things. I'm a "real person" and I don't want to see me on the side of a bus -- and trust me, in my underwear neither do you. (And speaking of underwear, what's with the lingerie these women are wearing? It's like Sears catalog, circa 1983.)

It was posted without a link to the "she said" point of view. As for the "she said":

I find this really sad because I came up in a time when we were eager to grow into the bodies of women. We wanted hips, a nice back porch and breasts. We saw beauty, strength and power in the body of a woman. Becoming a woman and having the stick figure of Lindsay Lohan would have been a disappointment. Now it seems everyone wants grown women to look like 12-year-old boys. (Ladies, if you are with a man who wants you to look like these scrawny stick-figure celebrities, I'm thinking that deep down he's lusting after another gender. But I digress.)

And folks, that's not it. Bill Zwecker, of CBS's moring show in Chicago added this to their newshow blog:

In this day and age, when we are facing a huge obesity problem in this country, we don't need to encourage anyone -- women OR men -- to think it's okay to be out of shape.

What? I cannot see how anyone in their right mind would consider these Dove ads an advertisement for obesity. The models aren't obese, no matter what some might think. In fact there are even a few people who think that Dove chose models who were still too thin in comparison with the weight of the "average american woman". But that's neither here nor there nor the end of this bizarre story. Richard Roeper, yes that's Roeper of Ebert & Roeper movie-reviewing fame

All this might have something to do with the massive media buy Dove and Ogilvy made in many metro locations. The ads are hard to miss. In Chicago, NYC and Boston they have taken over subway stations, filling every available ad space with the ads. The ads dominate this subway station in Boston. The far wall has maybe 48 spaces for ads...which pretty much run the length of the station, and all of which were Dove ads.
The ads are already starting to be defaced with graffitti though. Like the ad below in Boston and these ads in NYC.

For more on the Dove campaign check out: Ogilvy Düsseldorf – No real beauties.

Embracing Real Beauty Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 Article/interview with 2 from the campaign