Recently, I received an email from Yorkdale’s PR announcing that supermodel, Coco Rocha, will once again be the “spokesmodel” for the mall.  The model, who is known to be very active on social media, was born in Toronto, but grew up in British Columbia.  While it’s great that Yorkdale chose someone born in the city, wouldn’t it have been better if they found someone who was actually raised in Toronto?  Better yet, why not choose non-models?  I realize that Yorkdale is a premium mall, so it’s important to look “fashion,” but they also have to think about the clients.

Behind the Scenes with Coco Rocha from Yorkdale Shopping Centre on Vimeo.

In my opinion, it would be better if they picked more local celebrities and city area bloggers for their campaigns.  I don’t think one needs to be “model-sized” (i.e. tall and thin) to look attractive (I feel that anyone who has this view has either been brainwashed by the fashion industry or is just not that good a designer or stylist).  In fact, many models don’t even look that great without make-up, stylists and good lighting.  Since Yorkdale caters to people of various sizes and age ranges, it would be great if they showed people who looked like their shoppers.

Using bloggers would probably be a great option for the mall.  Many stores are already doing this – LOFT, for example, recently featured Jean of Extra Petite fame to promote their petite section.  A selection of “regular people” ranging from the super-short (Yorkdale a good selection of shops featuring petite sizes) to tall and various body types (smaller frames and larger frames) and ages.  Six to eight people, both male and female, would probably be a good number.  By featuring a well-known model, it is just reenforcing the belief that you must not only be skinny to be attractive, but tall, as well.  And not to mention, Coco is not even REALLY from Toronto.