I have always loved shopping at American Eagle Outfitters because their clothes are great. Along with American Eagle, I enjoy shopping in their lingerie and pajama line for women, Aerie. Their clothes are always comfortable, colorful, and fun; but I was so glad to find an entirely new reason to love their brand even more. They started a campaign a while back called #AerieReal. The campaign questioned beauty standards and empowered all women to feel beautiful and sexy.
This campaign shined a new light on women and girls embracing their inner and outer beauty. This campaign promotes self love, strength, and respect. Aerie does this by having real, wholesome girls model for them in online and print advertisements. Not only do they pick these amazing women to stand for their brand, but they keep all of the photographs of their models un-retouched and unedited. Here is a video of one of Aerie’s newer models, Barbie Ferreira.
Personally, I love this video so much because Barbie Ferreira is talking about being herself, unapologetically. This is something a lot of women have to deal with in today’s world, being apologetic for who they are. In my opinion, no woman or man should have to apologize for the way that they look. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, and this Aerie Real campaign is able to showcase that to the world.
A few days ago, Aerie Real took it to the next step by launching a new campaign titled #AerieMAN, or so I thought.
When I first saw this, I noticed that there has been a focus for a long time on body image having to do with women. I thought it was amazing that AerieMAN was going to address men and how body image has affected their lives. A few days after seeing all of the new AerieMAN advertisements, I got notice that the AerieMAN campaign was a big April fools joke. At first I was disappointed, then I grew upset. I had to do something, so I picked up my cell phone and called their customer service line. After listening to some calming call waiting music for about 10 minutes, a woman picks up the phone. She asked for my first name and then I asked "So, the reason I am calling is because of your AerieMAN campaign, is it real? I recently read an article telling me that the campaign is fake." The woman seemed to somewhat know what I was talking about and put me on hold to go find out the proper answer to tell me, a confused college student afraid she was supporting a false campaign.
Winds up that I was just a confused college student afraid she was supporting a false campaign, because she told me that it was indeed fake. But then, she went on to explain that Aerie saw that as a goal and a fantasy to one day achieve in the future. She also shared that Aerie has made a commitment to stop re-touching mens' underwear and swim by the holiday season in 2016!
Aerie, you tricked all of us this April Fools' Day with a great campaign. I can't wait to see what is to come this holiday season.
