How women are targeted by advertisers

And how! While there is a wide range of "attractive women", even in advertising, there is indeed an extensive amount of research and review that goes into any beauty company's model selection process. It's a tricky thing to find a model who not only looks appealing to a broad audience (and I mean in terms of ethnic appeal, age, even perceived income & education level) but also fits visually with what the brand stands for. And when you say "stereotypical", there are many "stereotypes" out there--for example, the model that works for Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion in Surfer magazine will not be the model that works for Chanel skincare in Town & Country magazine--both are stereotypical, but very different.
To play devil's advocate here, one way that companies keep coming back to these "stereotypical" model types is that they conduct focus groups with mock-up ads and promotions for panels of consumers to react to. I can say from experience that even if a company's focus group is not asking questions about models--for example, maybe they just want consumer reaction to how a new skincare technology is explained--90% of the time the panel will make comments about the model if there is one. It's human nature. Consumers have strong opinions about models and, ironically, will many times choose the very "stereotypes" you reference when asked to select the models that appeal to them.
In terms of harm done, I do believe that for a younger audience--say the impressionable 14 to 25 year-old bracket--it can be a very unrealistic and unattainable ideal. I would hope that with maturity and acceptance of the things life gives us that we'd all be able to separate the hyped aspiration from the reality. But I know that is not always so.

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