Mark Dolliver: When a Pollster Calls

Each culture has its own notions of beauty, but vanity is the common property of all mankind. We find fresh confirmation of this in a 45-country survey by The Nielsen Co. (which owns Adweek). Actually, many people claim they feel pushed to pay attention to their looks: 72 percent agreed that there’s more pressure now than in their parents’ time for people to look good. Whatever the impetus, 30 percent of global respondents said they spend “much more than I used to on beauty products and treatments.”