Ads: Dove Real Beauty

Here's a very thought-provoking and amazing Dove TV spot from Ogilvy Toronto and Reginald Pike.

I first saw this on adrants where the following questions are raised.

"Is this [photoshopping people into models for ads and magazines] wrong? Are we devaluing the appreciation of human beings by turning them into beautiful but freakishly unreal versions of themselves? Do we as an industry owe it to society to stop perpetuating the myth of beauty and its seeming importance over every other human attribute? The answers are unclear and likely answerable only in a fashion similar to that of abortion: individually and with respect to a person's individual situation. We, of course, are not, by far, the only industry that does this. Fashion and Hollywood play their part as well..."

Upon hearing that I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising, people sometimes bring up materialism, societal values, and ethics with me (by the way, it seems like very few people have heard of the adcouncil). I've heard varying viewpoints about whether advertising is powerful enough to impact society. On one hand, I've heard a professor say it isn't powerful enough; On the other hand, I've read about advertising agencies whose sole purpose is to mess with society, to change the status quo if you will.