Dove's "Real Beauty" Campaign

I recently read an article called Sorry, Dove: I'm not buying your brand of female empowerment, written by Stassia Edwards for The Week. The article comments on the new Dove video, "Patches", which is part of their Real Beauty campaign.

Dove has been advertising "Real Beauty" since 2004. The idea of the campaign is that women are beautiful the way that they are, and they shouldn't let beauty companies or mass media tell them otherwise. 

While I agree that women (and men!) shouldn't let mass media and advertisements influence their body image, I think that the whole Dove campaign is hypocracy at its finest. Everyone seems to forget that Dove is a beauty company. 

Let's look at the picture to the left, for example. Wow, that heavily airbrushed woman has real curves! Don't let people put insult your body, you're beautiful the way you are! Don't let corporate media bring down your self-esteem! Don't be afraid to show your body, no matter the shape or size! Buy our skin-firming anti-cellulite soaps and lotions! 

Okay, so it's not exactly out of the ordinary for commercials to be misleading or even outright lie. But Dove's ads are outright deceitful. In the words of Edwards, they "foster the belief that its products are more than just cosmetic, that they somehow enhance an inner beauty that exists in a place untouchable by beauty products." 

The big reason that the campaign has been so ridiculously successful is because it makes women think that by buying Dove, they're somehow contributing to feminism, because if I had to pick two words to encompass the entire feminist movement, they'd be 'female empowerment.' And Dove is allllll about money female empowerment.

What do you think about the whole Real Beauty campaign? Is it well meaning or is it a marketing ploy?