Analysis: The Angels Vs. The Real You

The Angels Vs. The Real You Ad campaigns have been using body shaming techniques for decades to sell products to women. Victoria’s Secret angel campaign is one of the worst offenders of advertising their products on unrealistic looking women. The way the media has been portraying women’s bodies has had a huge negative effect on women’s self-esteem. In America 91% of women are currently unhappy with their bodies (Do something organization). More and more women are starting to take a stand against the unrealistic standards about the way people should look that advertisements portray. One company that is going against the grain through their advertising is Aerie. They have recently released a body positive ad campaign called Aerie real. Seeing
Their models are all very tall, thin, and usually fair skinned (fig 1). This leaves a psychological imprint on women. After seeing all these photo shopped models, women begin to subconsciously think that is the way they should look. These ads use pathos to appeal to buyers. Women have a lot of emotion invested in their bodies so when seeing the ads, they feel a sense of jealousy or insecurity. If the models look so amazing in that lingerie, then it makes sense that buying that same lingerie would make them feel and look that perfect. However, it doesn’t work like that. No one looks like those models. Those models don’t even look that way in real life. Victoria’s secret is using photo shop as a tool to take advantage of women’s insecurities to sell them lingerie and swimwear (fig 2). This approach has worked for a long time but it’s starting to lose its
Women are getting fed up with unrealistic ads so they have welcomed the new Aerie ads with open arms. Since releasing their new ad campaign Aerie’s sales have gone up 20% in just one fiscal year (Forbes). That fast of an increase is almost unheard of in the business world. The public has had an exceptionally positive reaction to this ad campaign. Women want to support brands that support them. On the other hand, Victoria’s Secret’s sales have been slowly declining or staying stagnant over the last year (Forbes). Victoria’s Secret is actually discontinuing their swimsuit line because sales have been so low. Additionally, the company is cutting 200 corporate positions due to the decline in revenue. Victoria’s Secret customers have been turning to Aerie over the last few years. Both companies sell comparable goods for about the same prices, so women are deciding that they are going to vote with their money and support the brand that is using a positive ethos. These numbers make it obvious that using ethos in an ad campaign is important, however using logos is also