Standards of beauty are not arbitrary but rather embody reliable cues to reproductive value. Advertisers have no special interest in inculcating a particular set of beauty standards; they do want to use whatever sells products. Advertisers perch a clear-skinned, regular-featured young woman on the hood of the latest-model car, or gather several attractive young women to stare fondly at a man drinking a brand-name beer, because these images exploit men’s evolved psychological mechanisms and therefore sell cars and beer, not because advertisers want to promulgate a single standard of beauty.
