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by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

The fashion industry and advertisers have been using thin models as the norm to sell us products; basically anything from cards, to cars to condos. The explanation offered is that these are the ideals of beauty; that it is these seeming clothes hangers that men desire that women aspire to be. It has always been the case of the fashion industry that people respond better to ‘thin’, that thin sells more products.

Now a study undertaken in Australia has exploded that myth, that thin models sell more products. Health psychologists undertook a study into the response of young people to advertisements. The study sought to measure objectively how people’s response to models translates into buying behavior.

It was found that the response of the subjects was the same, whether the model was of catwalk slender proportions or of a more average body type. 400 young men and women were shown adverts featuring regular (read skinny) models and plus size (read your and my size) models; they showed an equal interest in buying the products in either case.

Then the subjects were asked to respond to other questions; to assess their own body satisfaction after doing the survey . Here the female subjects showed interesting but unsurprising results: women between 18 and 25 years of age claimed to feel better about their own bodies and self image when shown the larger size models than when shown the thin ones.

Phillippa Diedrichs conducted this study as part of her PhD work at the University of Queensland’s Health Psychology Research Unit and says “[This shows] we can change the images we see and still sell products but also make people feel better about themselves.“

With any luck advertisers and the fashion industry at large will be paying attention to this; if they can sell their products and at the same time make people feel better about themselves, surely that is a better option than to peddle an unrealistic, even unattainable body shape and type that is glorified as beautiful?

Personally speaking I find it a little difficult to identify with someone who looks like this picture here; what do you think?