Friday, July 9, 2010

'Cause we are beautiful no matter what they say

Dear Dr Heidi,
Every time I drive on the freeway I see your billboards. Most often it is the one that features small lemons positioned so that they look like breasts, along with the tag line "Turning lemons into lemonade" Breast Augmentation by Dr Heidi. Today I saw another one with a picture of 2 small lemons next to 2 cantaloupes which were next to 2 watermelons. This was also labeled Breast Augmentation by Dr Heidi. As clever as the wordplays and images may be, I find the association of body parts with lemons to be quite disturbing. Could you be suggesting that if certain body parts do not measure up to someone's standard that there is something wrong with them? Though a lemon is a fruit, the dictionary also defines it as "something that is unsatisfactory or defective". How many young girls will see those billboards and wonder if something is wrong with them because they don't look like a swimsuit model. Will they feel like their bodies are defective and need to be fixed? As a woman and a doctor, I would hope that you would be more aware of the many physical and mental health issues that are caused by unhealthy body images. While I am not against plastic surgery in general, I am definitely against advertising that targets women and girls and insinuates that their bodies are not good enough unless they look a certain way. Shame on you for doing just that. I hope in the future, you will rethink your advertising slogans and send a more positive message.
(Lyrics from Beautiful by Christina Aguilera)