Jackson Free Press

Nik Askew is a British filmmaker with a marvelous talent for speaking with people about their innermost motivations and feelings. His short films are small gems of joy, peace or inspiration—and sometimes all three—a quiet, thoughtful pause in a world gone a little mad. Each one features just one or two ordinary, yet completely extraordinary people and they run about 5 or 6 minutes, max. There's a new film most Monday mornings (natch!). If you're searching for a bit of sanity, check out his Monday 9 am TV website.

Say what you will about their soap but the makers of Dove are on to something with their campaigns to show women as they really are, not as the anorexic models who have become our distorted version of beauty. Real beauty is, well, real, in all of our lumpy, bumpy imperfections.

Personally, I think every girl armed with Cosmo and Vogue (and trying to live up to that impossible standard should see their short film "Evolution," a time-lapse of a model being prepped for a photo-shoot, and then the PhotoShop retouching that takes place before her image goes up on a billboard. It's been around for a while now, so forgive me if you've already seen it.

A few months ago, they released a new campaign targeted to "women of a certain age," entitled "Pro-Age." The ads feature women ostensibly too old to be in an anti-aging ad. Now, I don't know about you, but I tend to shake my head when I see gorgeously retouched models in their 20s advertising magic anti-aging potions (who are they trying to kid?), so this is a welcome shift in the advertising world. It's about time someone on Madison Avenue stopped treating women like mindless idiots whose every thought revolves around looking good.

Like a teacher once told me, "Happiness isn't getting what you want, it's wanting what you have."

Peace