Dove Cosmetics has launched a ““Campaign for Real Beauty”. Both of us are trying to figure out what we think and how we feel about this campaign. Apparently, Dove has been working for a couple of years at finding out how women feel about their bodies, and taking their cue from their customers’ responses. Now, the San Francisco BART is papered in ads for a cream that will firm your thighs, illustrated with a picture of six scantily-clad women of various races, some of them definitely fatter than women one generally sees in ads. The photographs have far more reality than you ever see in advertisements, although they are still somewhat manipulated.

On the site, you find no ads. Instead, you find a series of polls showing individual women different characteristics generally lumped as unattractive: fat, wrinkles, small breasts, etc. You are asked to vote: “is she gray or gorgeous? is she wrinkled or wonderful?. Small insets talk about other Dove initiatives, including a fund for self-esteem for girls.

We’re taking a poll based on their poll: is Dove doing good here, or are they making a profit by selling beauty products in the name of “real beauty”? What do you think? Help us figure this out.