There's been a lot of talk lately about banning stick-thin models from the international runways, but don't expect it to happen in magazines any time soon. As it turns out, a new study confirms that those thin models pictured in ad campaigns do indeed make us feel bad about ourselves (shocker!), but we're more likely to buy a product a thin woman is shilling than from regular-sized ladies. What's more, women in the study were more likely to turn down a helping of Oreos after viewing stick-figure models. "These thin models make women feel bad, but they like it," said business professor Jeremy Kees, a business professor at Villanova University, in Ad Age. So what are we to make of this? Well, it's no surprise that whatever we buy, we're buying into a lifestyle and not just a material object, but we've also been conditioned to accept "thin" as the ideal, and, until the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty came along, haven't been exposed to many other body types in the media.
What do you think? Are you influenced by body image in your purchasing decisions? And, are we all just a bunch of sado-machists, knowingly wallowing in unattainable ideals presented in magazines? Let me know in the comments.
