WWW- Everyone agrees that Dove’s “real women” – six curvy non-models posing in white undies – are unusual pinup girls.

But the consensus ends there. Since the campaign debuted this month, the public’s reaction has ranged from praise to condemnation, rekindling an age-old debate over whether reality makes for effective advertising.

For years, marketers have been lambasted for running images of stick-thin models that contribute to poor self-esteem, body-image issues and, at the extreme, eating disorders.

Enter Dove with its “real women” campaign. The ads, which have popped up all over New York on billboards, buses and the subway, feature regular women to promote the company’s new skin-firming lotion.

Executives at Dove and its ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather in Chicago, say their intent is to chip away at stereotypes and broaden the definition of what is considered beautiful. “We’re making beauty democratic and inclusive,” said Philippe Harousseau, Dove’s director of marketing.

In recent weeks, thousands of women have flocked to the Dove site devoted to ads, thecampaignforrealbeauty.com, mostly to praise the company.

“It’s about time that a company that wants to sell a product to real women has finally used real women to promote it!” is typical of the many comments.

The campaign has drawn a lot of attention – much of it positive, but certainly not all. Web sites and blogs that follow ad trends have elicited far different reactions, many taking the company to task for telling women that they should accept themselves while trying to sell them a skin-firming lotion.

A few have gone so far as to suggest that the campaign gives tacit approval to being overweight despite the health risks. “The reason most Americans are considered grossly overweight is because they keep relabeling things as average,” wrote one observer.

The debate has also taken some strange turns, including a question about what qualifies these women as “real” in the first place. A Chicago Tribune column summed up this view, arguing that while the Dove women are not perfect 10s, they’re far from zeroes.

“What Dove has done is create an ad campaign around a whole bunch of 8s,” the paper wrote.

Gina Crisanti, who was waitressing in a Chicago café when she was spotted by a Dove casting agent, said the campaign has been an “eye-opening” experience for her after years of struggling with body issues.

“Some people say we’re too heavy and some people say that we’re too pretty to be real,” she said. “But I think the response is overwhelmingly positive.”