real people as models

Here's a great article from the Village Voice about Dove's new campaign where they use models that, in the advertising and consumer culture world, would be considered fat. An excerpt:

Though we like to think of ourselves as the most progressive person on earth, it turns out we are a lot more similar to most people than we care to admit: We, like everyone else, are so accustomed to looking at skinny, skinny women in magazines, on television, in movies, and virtually every place else that when we're confronted with someone of a normal weight she seems completely freakish.

Dove claims their campaign has been a huge success, and that their microsite for the campaign, campaignforrealbeauty.com , has received a great response. Dove is certainly not the first marketer to use real people in their ads. But they've done a stellar job on execution here, and have produced a campaign that's emotional, engaging, and is getting people talking. Including the press. Nice job.

In other fat news, check out this spot from Marriott, who encourages people to get fat, because you'll be harder to kidnap. Time for me to go eat some chocolate cake.