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Inspiring Ads: NIKE & Marilyn Monroe – A woman is often measured…

THE ILLUSIONISTS is a feature-length documentary about the marketing of unattainable beauty around the world. To find out more about the film, click here.

I just stumbled upon an inspiring NIKE ad from the 1990s (many thanks to Stephanie Heart for posting the ad’s quote).

A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control. She is measured by the way her body curves or doesn’t curve. By where she is flat or straight or round. She is measured by 36-24-36 and inches and ages and numbers. By all the outside things that don’t ever add up to who she is on the inside. And so if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things she can control, by who she is and who she is trying to become because as every woman knows, measurements are only statistics, and statistics lie.

Apparently in the 1990s NIKE ran this ad in a few magazines and used it in a promotional campaign for Nike Women, offering posters and notecards of it. If you’re lucky enough, you can still find copies at flea markets…

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