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In the Toronto Star recently Maureen Dowd quoted a Science Times article describing a study at the University of Alberta as follows "Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion. Parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones" What a chilling notion! It led us to re-read the philosophy behind the Dove campaign as we looked at your reactions to their ad initiative. Its intention is to "promote respect and acceptance for a wide range of ages, body shapes and sizes." The images they show certainly reflect that diversity, and it was fascinating to see your interpretation of their intention and the success of their venture. It seemed somehow to neutralize the horror of the Alberta study

Thank you all for your thoughtful and sensitive responses, there were too many to print every one, so we've tried to capture the flavour with a summary and some quotes.

The majority of you were impressed by the intention and felt the images were visually arresting and respectful of women's depth and substance, while still using the campaign as a vehicle to sell soap. That "felt creepy" one of you said, "exploited" said another. Mixed feelings were a common theme, appreciation of the attention being called to acceptance competing with the feelings of it being an angle for promoting sales. There was a sense amongst the respondents that consumer products are often sold by playing on our insecurities and maybe this approach of acceptance was a new trend in advertising, and if Dove got to make a profit from setting this trend, maybe the benefit was worth it. It certainly got us all thinking and talking to each other about it and that's useful in and of itself. Dove has posted both positive and negative responses to the initiative on their site, which is good too.

We also heard from one of our readers who had sent a message to a large corporation about a TV ad campaign that she found offensive and demeaning to women. The ad was subsequently pulled. Although corporations always have the bottom line in sight, this was a powerful example of having an opinion heard, respected and acted upon. "At times it seems as if no one is listening or cares about what you have to say or your point of view. However once in a while you can be pleasantly surprised" said Tanya Lee in her message to us.

Let us know if you've had something positive happen as a result of speaking up. It'll help us all to do it more often. We're at zine@sheenasplace.org.