Julianne Hanson

ENG-110
Rhetorical Analysis
4/2/19
Aerie Real? Or Not so Real?

This advertisement depicts a young woman with tan skin and dark hair walking on the

beach with the blue ocean at her feet and the blue sky in the background. She is smiling slightly

with her face half turned towards the camera, looking over towards the text of the advertisement

which reads “#aeriereal-summer is here, whether you’re flat as a surfboard or curvy like a

coconut, remember there’s no such thing as a perfect beach body” and underneath in bold letters,

“the real you is sexy”.

First released in the spring of 2014, this ad targeted the younger generation by being

published across social media platforms. Due to the hashtag in the ad, it is made clear that the

audience is young adults, because many adults would not understand and they would therefore

not be as likely to be interested in the ad. This limits the audience significantly. An alternative

way they could target the older generations would be to publish the ad on television or in the

newspaper. They most likely did not do this because the large majority of their consumers are

young adults. However, Aerie missed out on a possible audience of parents or grandparents

buying things for their children or grandchildren.

There are many elements in play that make it an effective ad. When you first see the

image, your attention is drawn to the girl because of the contrasting color. Most of the ad is light

blue or white, but the girl has bronzed skin and is wearing a colorful swimsuit. This is effective

because it draws your eyes to the suit, which is the item they are promoting. The model looks

happy and peaceful like she doesn’t have a care in the world. This causes the audience to want to

feel the same way, subconsciously thinking that maybe if they get a swimsuit and head to the

beach they will be just as happy. Looking at the girl causes you to follow her gaze to the words
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of the ad, which is the next thing the creators want you to see. The background of the ocean and

sand is important to make the audience feel like it is warm and summertime. Seeing the image of

the warm weather makes the consumer want to go to the beach and therefore the need a new

swimsuit arises. The words of the ad state that “summer is here”, which produces an urgent

feeling of needing to buy a swimsuit right away. It would not be as effective if the ad had said

“summer is coming”. While the former implies that you are running behind if you do not have

this or some other swimsuit right now, the latter could result in procrastination, the consumer

thinking that they still have time and therefore not buying the swimsuit right away.

Another effective strategy of the creators of this ad is the message. The words of the ad

were quite revolutionary for its time, stating that “whether you’re flat as a surfboard or curvy like

a coconut, remember there’s no such thing as a perfect beach body. The real you is sexy”. Other

ads from the time only showed models with the “ideal” body, so this was unique. The words of

the Aerie ad are effective because they help the audience feel accepted how they are and not

ashamed or self-conscious the way an image of an impossibly thin model could make them feel.

Instead of feeling alienated, they feel understood and therefore more willing to buy Aerie

products. The use of similes in these lines is also effective; it keeps the ad related to beaches and

summer while also softening the words. If the ad just said “whether you’re flat chested or curvy”

women could have felt uncomfortable or attacked with the blunt language. By using the similes it

makes the sentence more fun, like something a friend might say to you.

The last line of the ad is a statement that the advertisers want you to remember. In italics

and all caps it states, “the real you is sexy”. This ties back to the #aeriereal at the start of the ad,

saying that you don’t need to be perfect to be sexy, being real is sexy too. Aerie Real is a

campaign that started in spring of 2014, when Aerie decided to stop retouching the photographs
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of their models to help foster body positivity (Ell). Teenage girls, Aerie’s typical consumers,

have benefitted from this campaign especially. However, this ad in particular, released at the

start of the campaign, seems to be trying to have the best of both worlds. It is somewhere in

between the typical Victoria’s Secret ad and the inclusive ads they have today. True, the model is

untouched, but she hardly needs any photo shopping, her only “imperfections” being a tan line

around her neck and some sand on her elbow. But she has her hair in a bun and she is wearing

minimal makeup, very different from typical swimsuit ads which unrealistically have a model in

a full face of makeup and beautiful blown out hair. She is also not a size 0 or plus sized, but is

more of an average build, depicting the majority of young girls (Davison). This ad is toeing the

line by still showing a beautiful model that has proved so popular to sales in the past, but also

showing her slight imperfections. Aerie seems to be dipping its toe into the deep end of the

representation of all women, not ready to jump in yet. But more recently they did jump in head

first; by 2018 they had created ads with all types of women. There are ads with women in

wheelchairs, women with Down syndrome, and women with tattoos and ostomy bags. There is

really full representation and they show the beauty in every woman (Penrose).

There are a couple different possible purposes for this ad. The main purpose is to sell

swimsuits, something they have been doing quite well, especially since the Aerie Real campaign

launched. The sales increased 20% in the fiscal year 2015 and 32% in quarter one of 2016 and

continue to increase. In 2017, the company was valued at 200 million but leapt to 500 million in

2018 and is hoping for a 1 billion dollar value in the next couple of years (Trefis). The campaign

has really resonated with consumers and has produced a massive trend towards buying Aerie

lingerie and swimsuits. It’s no secret that the Aerie Real campaign is a main cause of the growth.

In 2016, Jay Schottenstein, the CEO of American Eagle Outfitters, the parent company of Aerie,
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complimented his Aerie team about their “innovative Aerie Real campaign” and how it is

“distinguishing the brand in the market place”(Meehan). Another possible purpose of the ad is to

raise body positivity in the community. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to know if Aerie truly

wanted to give women more confidence with this campaign or if they simply wanted to make

more money. Possibly, the marketing experts knew that consumers would respond well to this

campaign and the fact that it helped many people was more of a bonus side effect instead of the

main cause. This does not change the good that Aerie has done; the campaign has helped many

women with body positivity and this does not change because of the reason for beginning Aerie

Real.