US lingerie clothing brand Aerie's move away from photoshopped ads has been as huge financial success for the company.
The sister company of American Eagle Outfitters decided to stop airbrushing their models in 2014 and, two years' later, it is thriving.
A new report from the company shows that it has enjoyed a 20% increase in sales for the last year alone, exceeding American Eagle's expectations.
Indeed, American Eagle saw just a 7% increase in sales itself.
In 2014, Aerie's sales were up 6%, compared to a drop of 6% for the total American Eagle brand.
As well as refusing to retouch photos of models wearing its lingerie, Aerie has also started hiring models of different shapes and sizes, with tattoos, beauty marks and other "unorthodox" features in modelling.
In an interview with Mashable, Aerie's global brand president saw a direct correlation between the 'Real' move and the growing demand for its lingerie
Jennfier Foyle said:
"In the industry today, it was important for us as a brand to give our girls REAL images to invoke self confidence.
"#AerieREAL has been a huge success with our customers and we have seen strong engagement on our social channels which inspires us to continue on this path".
The 'Real' campaign kicked off in Spring 2014, using ads with taglines such as: "The girl in this photo has not been retouched. The real you is sexy". The #aeriereal hashtag currently features on over 30,000 photos on Instagram.
