The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty has been called a lot of things, from a “game changer” and “a breath of fresh air”, to “hypocritical”, “sexist”, and “sneaky”. So why has the campaign, whose major innovation was to use ads that featured real women rather than airbrushed models or celebrity spokespersons, sparked so much controversy? Taking a social psychological perspective, this article attempts to address the good, the bad, and possibly even the ugly side of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. Dove launched the “Campaign for Real Beauty” in 2004, in response to the findings of a major global...

“Mental simulation”—interacting mentally with an object—is an important part of our daily interactions. We review literature that provides evidence that humans mentally simulate automatically in preparation for object interactions. We also discuss our research showing how simple object orientation can change mental simulation and thus purchase intention. This review should provide practitioners and curious intellectuals a primer for understanding this fascinating area of human thought. Our lives are filled with repetitive behavior. Take, for example, your daily dinner routine. You pull out...