“Beautiful women don’t pay” in self-esteem boost stunt

A Brazilian restaurant marked International Women’s Day by asking female customers if they were beautiful, with those replying positively receiving their meal on the house.

The restaurant, Spoleto, says it “helped women to increase their self-esteem, making their own good moments”.  Apparently increasing sales by an impressive 35% that day, and receiving coverage internationally (Yahoo! New Zealand, among others), the stunt has been seen by some as the equivalent of the Dove Real Beauty sketches campaign. 

However, as often comes with stunts that deal with female beauty, the move has been criticised by some for judging beauty by outward appearance.

Although the video claims the aim was to show women that beauty comes from within, the staff involved in the stunt also held up a mirror to help customers answer the rather blunt question, “Are you beautiful”.  I imagine women with low self-esteem would not feel particularly thrilled at such a direct approach – free meal or no free meal.

I’d like to be a fly on the wall for the awkward moment the staff had to process the bill for the woman that answered “No”…

I’d also love to see the results of a similar experiment over here, where no doubt our British tradition of modesty and self-deprecation would see a lot of women paying for their meals that day.

See the video here:

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