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Coleen’s ‘Real’ Women?

Posted in Advertising, Media, Creative, Latest reporters' blogs, Lucy Tesseras February 5th, 2008 by Lucy Tesseras

Coleen McLoughlin is on a mission. Her aim? To give ‘real’ women (just like her, apparently) the chance to star in big name fashion and beauty ad campaigns.

In the first episode of the new ITV2 series, aptly titled Coleen’s Real Women, the footballer’s wife scouts around London to find the new legs of Pretty Polly.

Despite being asked to find a leggy girl of at least 5″8′ Coleen is determined to find someone closer to the average UK height of 5″4′.

Although an admirable idea, the show didn’t follow through. Of the three girls Coleen and her team groomed for the Pretty Polly casting only one was actually under 5″8′ and they all looked suspiciously like the type of girls normally seen in ad campaigns - attractive and toned, with a nice smile and good complexion. Not exactly smashing any boundaries there then.

And while it was great that Pretty Polly did choose one of Coleen’s girls to feature in the campaign (not the girl at 5″4′) all the ad actually showed in the end was her legs alongside a whole procession of other legs, presumably those of real models. A bit of a let down all in all.

Dove on the other hand has successfully pioneered the ‘real women’ concept, but when they say real women, they mean real women. The Dove ads star women of all sizes, ages, nationalities and shapes to try and represent and speak to as wide an audience as possible, not just pretty 20-somethings waiting to get discovered.

In subsequent weeks Coleen is on the look out for an Avon cover girl, a sportswear model for sweatyBetty and five girls matching different hair types for Schwarzkopf. Let’s hope she does a bit better.

After the ongoing size zero debates of recent months, it’s nice to see someone trying to make a difference and change the way advertisers think, but is Coleen really the right person for the job?

She might see herself as a down to earth girl next door type, but she’s had a far from normal life. When you’re engaged to an international footballer, live in a multi-million pound mansion and have a stylist on speed dial, real doesn’t really come into it.