A year and a half ago, American Eagle’s lingerie line, Aerie, stopped retouching, airbrushing, and Photoshopping the models in its ads. The fashion line also quit hiring girls with supermodel bodies in favor of those with natural-looking figures. If the models had any tattoos, beauty marks, or blemishes those would now remain visible, too. These changes helped Aerie’s sales jump 10 percent.
Of course that would help sales. Why advertise lingerie to men when women will be the ones wearing it? Men might like what they see but when women realize that they will look good in the product and that is going to make them more likely to buy them.
It’s almost like showing clothing on real people gives real people the confidence to wear it.