Kelly Osbourne, fake-tan & self esteem. Join the dots. Because I can’t.

Some marriages don’t seem to make a lot of sense. Like Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett. Or Geoffrey Edlesten and Brynn Gordon – no wait, that does make a kind of train wreck sense. And just like marriages, some partnerships between celebrities, products and causes don’t make any kind of sense either.

I’m struggling to make sense of this one. Kelly Osbourne is going to get a post all of her own shortly so that’s not really what this is about. It’s really about the very odd decision by a fake tan company to use her as a self-esteem ambassador.

The press release goes like this:

New research has uncovered that body image remains a major concern for young people, with nearly three quarters of 16-30 year olds confirming that they regularly do not feel self-confident.

The results were today revealed by Kelly Osbourne who has been signed up by St. Tropez as an ambassador for self-esteem issues affecting young people in the UK. The UK wide research* was commissioned by St. Tropez in collaboration with youth charity The Prince’s Trust.

Kelly commented: ‘“It really saddens me that so many young people suffer from low self esteem and feel unhappy with their appearance. I think that at times we can be very hard on ourselves, which is certainly something I have experienced in my own life. I managed to overcome those negative thoughts by being healthy, thinking positively and making small changes to my lifestyle that make me feel good about myself, such as taking more exercise and being true to yourself.

“Dancing With The Stars and having my first ever St. Tropez spray tan was a huge confidence booster for me – it helped me to get fit and allowed me to look and feel beautiful from the outside, in. More over it also helped me to see that I can achieve anything I put my mind to, which was a huge accomplishment for me – I’ve never really been able to finish something I’ve started, and to do so feels amazing.”

Kelly Osbourne has been an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust for three years and believes passionately in The Trust’s work, helping young people overcome issues such as depression, drug addiction and long-term unemployment.

St. Tropez has worked in partnership with The Prince’s Trust for more than two years, already raising £104,300 to tackle low self-esteem amongst young people by giving them confidence and job skills.

As a further fundraising initiative we will be donating £10 from every purchase on www.st-tropez.com of our £45 Complete Bronzing Sets (Lotion and Mousse) sold from 15th March – 30th June 2010 to The Princes Trust.

Pass the Panadol Rapid, the neckbrace and possibly also get me a brandy. I just need to get a few things straight in my very muddled mind. Kelly Osbourne is a celebrity who is currently famous for dramatic weight loss. She has been to rehab a number of times for drug and alcohol addiction, the most recent of which was less than a year ago.

The shot being used to illustrate this self-esteem campaign is heavily HEAVILY digitally altered. And the connection between fake tan and self esteem is………? Tenuous? Proposterous?

I can’t help but see this as a completely cynical marketing exercise. Oh wait, that’s because it is. A large company using the idea of body image and self-esteem to sell products. Dove managed it with charm, grace, humour and a degree of authenticity.

But this? This to me smacks of something altogether different.

Associating yourself with a charity is not always a positive thing for that charity, however much they need the financial support of big businesses. It can be a pretty parasitic and exploitative relationship.

The idea of a fake tan company promoting self-esteem? The idea of Kelly Osbourne – a woman who is clearly a long long way from being in a stable, happy, healthy place in relation to her body and her sobriety – as a self-esteem ambassador? And then digitally altering the shots to make her look plastic?

Frankly, I think this marriage is uncomfortable, hypocritical and ridiculous.

Do you think beauty products should be pushing self-esteem? Is Kelly Osbourne is the right person to be a self-esteem ambassador? It’s a tough call so if you were thinking about who WOULD be the right person (fake tan aside), who would you choose?