Is the Philippines ready for real women in commercials?

Dove has rented the huge billboard on EDSA that
once belonged to Globe (children running from a nuclear power station trailing
blue radioactive ribbons) and Sony Wega (a huge TV that was somehow dwarfed by
the white space around it). Now the huge billboard has a huge woman smiling down
benignly at coughing buses. The copy beside her asks people to text in if they
think she’s a) extra-large or b) extra-sexy.

Dove’s campaign for real beauty began in
the UK. The first commercial I saw for it featured different women with stretch
marks, innies, outies, freckles, scars; old skin, young skin, fat-padded skin,
crinkled skin, pregnant skin. I thought it was brave and yes, beautiful. One
print ad featuring a buxom woman with big thighs and wild curly hair said,
“Let’s face it, firming the thighs of a size 8 supermodel wouldn’t have been
much of a challenge.”

In one study we
ran, where we showed a test ad with a plus-size woman, hardly any of the
consumers thought she was an appropriate model, or someone they could relate to.
When last I looked, 46% felt the Dove model was extra-large; 54% agreed she was

Now, the campaign is here.
The women are not as vividly real as in the UK version. I don’t see any scars or
obvious wrinkles. The models aren’t typical, but neither are they a brave step

The campaign has apparently been
introduced into the US, as well. In an AdAge article, one industry professional
commented that we don’t use C-class students as role models for education or
schools, so why should we use not-so-beautiful women to sell beauty? (Unless
someone devises an absolute grading system for beauty that everyone will agree
to use, that professional should probably refrain from commenting in