Exclusive! Dove Real Beauty Campaign Statement
Dove is releasing a statement tomorrow on the recent airbrushing controversy behind their “Real Beauty” campaign ads. (You can find the backstory here and here, but in a nutshell, Pascal Dangin, one of the photographers employed by Annie Leibovitz, who shot the ads, is claiming that they were retouched.) As luck would have it, I’ve been invited to sit at Dove’s table tomorrow when the Dove Self-Esteem Fund is being honored by the Step Up Women’s Network at their annual Inspiration Awards luncheon. Their publicist just released the statement to me in advance, which I’ll reprint in full:
Statement from Dove about The New Yorker Article
9 May 2008, 4:45pm
Dove’s mission is to make more women feel beautiful every day by widening the definition of beauty and inspiring them to take great care of themselves. Dove strives to portray women by accurately depicting their shape, size, skin color and age.
The “real women” ad referenced in recent media coverage was created and produced entirely by Ogilvy, the Dove brand’s advertising agency, from start to finish and the women’s bodies were not digitally altered.
Pascal Dangin worked with photographer Annie Leibovitz (Ogilvy has never employed Mr. Dangin on the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty), who did the photography for the launch of the Dove ProAge campaign, a new campaign within the Campaign for Real Beauty. There was an understanding between Dove and Ms. Leibovitz that the photos would not be retouched - the only actions taken were the removal of dust from the film and minor color correction.
“Let’s be perfectly clear - Pascal does all kinds of work - but he is primarily a printer - and only does retouching when asked to. The idea for Dove was very clear at the beginning. There was to be NO retouching and there was not,” confirmed Annie Leibovitz, commenting on the ProAgecampaign.
Mr. Dangin responded, “The recent article published by The New Yorker incorrectly implies that I retouched the images in connection with the Dove “real women” ad. I only worked on the Dove ProAge campaign taken by Annie Leibovitz and was directed only to remove dust and do color correction - both the integrity of the photographs and the women’s natural beauty were maintained.”
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I was at the press event in Carefree, Arizona years ago when the Campaign For Real Beauty was launched. I don’t know what actually went on behind the scenes, and I think it’s a bit naive to assume some itchy-fingered photoshopper didn’t indulge himself, even a tiny bit. Does that dilute the love-your-body, we-are-all-beautiful-no-matter-what-sized-package-we-come-in message of the campaign, however? I don’t think so—but maybe I’m biased. What do you think?
May 8th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I agree with you, Nadine! I don’t think a tiny bit of airbrushing would hurt the campaign nor the message. Whether you’re thick or thin, minor photo touchups are fine and even expected in my opinion. *shrug*
May 8th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
[…] just hooked me up with the details on Dove’s press release for tomorrow, since she got an exclusive advance copy today (and got invited to the annual Step Up Women’s Network Inspirational awards - jealous!) […]
May 8th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Frankly, there is bound to be some minor retouching here and there. As long as they still continue with their same message and don’t extremely alter the photos, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with it.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
[…] Dove’s under fire as of late because of a photo retouch scandal! Annie Liebovitz is stating, firmly, that no bodies/photos were retouched. Thanks to Jolie Nadine for the full story here. […]
May 9th, 2008 at 5:12 am
I don’t mind touchups that fix blemishes or stretchmarks or stuff like that. What upsets me is when magazine deliberately take inches off of a model’s (or actress’s) thighs, waist, hips, etc to make the rest of us feel like we can never live up to the “ideal.” Whatever that is.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I would like to be an airbrushed real woman! At any age, isn’t looking the best you can be the point?
Jeez, I had to cancel my trip to the Summit! Darn. I would have loved to meet you.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I agree as well. While I understand that Dove wants to maintain the integrity of such a program, let’s face: we’ve seen the ads and the models have not been retouched to look like the size zero, flawless models in other ads. They still look like real, beautiful women to me even if minor Photoshop adjustments were made.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I still think they portray women more realistically than the glamazon, waifs, and over made up models etc we get in other magazines and ads.
Even if they did a little retouching, from our eyes, it’s plain to see that they didn’t compromise the goal of portraying women as we really are, not an unrealistic over made glossy images we are so used to.
I’m glad they are trying to change our perspective, or rather, fix our mistaken perspective on what a beautiful woman should look like.
Hooray for real beauty!
May 9th, 2008 at 10:36 am
hey Nadine,
I felt like something didn’t seem right with that article. To me, the whole thing regarding the Dove campaign within the New Yorker piece was really vague but then the news media blew it way out of proportion, even though it was never specified within the article what was actually retouched. that’s kind of shoddy reporting/fact-checking on the New Yorker’s part….
May 9th, 2008 at 10:40 am
We’ve seen these women “in person” as well - in commercials, in their appearances on TV shows, etc - and they appear to be as lovely and natural in print as they do in person. If there was retouching, I do not think it altered the appeal and statement of the ads themselves.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I don’t see any cellulite where there would be or bruising or normal flaws. The way they are presented conforms to the idea that that’s a natural shape for them, rather than they are actually fat and may have rolls of fat, etc.
They were Photoshopped. I think Leibovitz and Edelman are harping on how the ProAge campaign was not retouched. Wasn’t he talking about the original Real Beauty ads. I think he may not have “technically” worked on them, but he did work on them.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:52 am
[…] while they do exactly the same thing except with chubbier, less attractive models. Of course, the company is mostly denying it, but what else can they do? Close-up photographs of real people never look as good as ones that […]