aerie needs to get real

It’s not PhotoShop, it’s the casting director.

Last November, Victoria’s Secret launched an ad campaign called “The Perfect Body,” featuring women with, well, perfect bodies. The phrase alone probably triggers the societal definition: legs for days, an hourglass curve, Barbie proportions. Maybe the international brand was being a bit brash about their expectation of what a woman should look like, but at least they were being honest. Victoria’s Secret was upfront about standards, while brands like aerie hide behind hollow phrases like “natural beauty” or the more customized “#aeriereal” while continuing to cast rail thin women as their models.

The face of the 2015 aerie campaign, Emma Roberts, would show up as a porcelain doll regardless of PhotoShop. She doesn’t have a silicone chest or blue eyes but she comes too close for comfort (or authenticity) for the brand to be going against any societal standard of beauty. Her untouched billboards look airbrushed — absolutely nothing is new, except maybe letting us know that the “natural look” is in this season.

The campaign itself is a humble brag of how well these models fit said standards, but without the boost here or there that PhotoShop provides. Aerie claims to be supporting body positivity and self-love to impressionable young girls, when really they’re banking off of these insecurities and showing them what they should look like, regardless of technology’s help.

The worst part is that customers are eating this facade right up, with a “strong first quarter 2015 results with a 7% comparable sales growth,” according to a recent article in American Eagle Financial News. If aerie were seriously advocating for these causes, they would cast a model whose jean size doesn’t range from size double zero to size two.