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? 

Ever since she appeared in a now-famous Glamour magazine article called “I Don’t Want To Be Perfect!” that juxtaposed her un-airbrushed photo next to a photoshopped one, I’ve had a girl-crush on Aisha Tyler. (Plus, hello, she was on Friends, she went to Dartmouth and she’s gorgeous-yet-humble.) With celebrities self-destructing seemingly by the minute, and the blogs-’n-rags hysterical over Jennifer Love Hewitt gaining three ounces and daring to wear a bikini, Aisha is helping to bring a much-needed sense of realism, maturity and body-acceptance to girls across the country with the Dove Self-Esteem Fund and Step Up Women’s Network. I can’t pretend otherwise; I was thrilled to speak with her. Our chat about media manipulation, fashion myths, and, of course, champagne, here:

(Okay, she’s prettier than you, or me, or anybody we’ve ever met, but at least take comfort in the fact that this photo is likely at least slightly airbrushed!)

I went to a workshop last night sponsored by the Dove Self-Esteem Fund and the Step Up Women’s Network, two wonderful organizations that have partnered to help boost the self-esteem of teenage girls across the country.  Hilarie Burton and Jess Weiner chatted and role-played with 30 high schoolers, discussing the negative (and often false) images put out by Hollywood, which are reinforced by girls’ families, friends and even themselves.  It was fascinating hearing Hilarie speak about the internal pressures put on actresses, and the various photo retouching that’s been done to her over the years; the message, of course, being that we aren’t good enough as is, and that we’d all be happier were we thinner, more even-skinned, more rosy-cheeked, and longer-limbed.  It reminded me of my days at FHM, when Anna Kournikova’s torso was digitally slimmed and lengthened for a cover, making her appear about 20 pounds thinner.   The old double standard still holds: men are judged by what they do, whereas women are judged by what they look like.  You can be talented, of course, and—look how far we’ve come!—you’ll even get celebrated for it!  But your hair and outfit will still rank a mention, too…especially by other women, who are often the cruelest judges.

A piece on Jezebel in response to today’s New York Times article about beauty bloggers further illustrates this point.  In a list of over a hundred comments, a few girls take the time to snark on my (admittedly anorexic!) eyebrows, mere days after Jezebel called an end to bashing other women’s appearances.  The anger behind the piece, however, made me think.  I assumed my readers knew that some of the products I get are sent from publicists, the same as when I was an “official” beauty editor, and I’ve done my best to always be honest and up front with you all, who I deeply respect.  I simply thought we had tred this ground three years ago!

Okay, so, here we go, just to prevent any misconceptions: as a beauty blogger, publicists and beauty companies will send me products.  I write about the ones I like and ignore the ones I don’t, except in the cases where a product simply sucks and is getting ridiculous hype.  This is why I have publicly come out about my dislike for Maybelline Great Lash, La Mer and the GHD flatiron, among other products.  You’ll notice that sometimes I write about new products, and sometimes I write about established ones: this is because I only write about products I’ve actually tested, stand behind, and would (or have) paid my own money for.  It runs the gamut: expensive, cheap, borrowed from a friend, sent by a publicist, purchased at CVS, adored or reviled; if it moves me, I’ll write about it.  I will continue to accept products from publicists as long as they send them, since a more thorough covering of the market helps make this blog more interesting, of course.  After thinking about said Jezebel article, and doing a little soul-searching of my own, however, I’ve decided to stop accepting all gifts.  Any gifts, new products I don’t test and gently-used products I have tested once will be donated to Dress For Success to benefit the career development and self-esteem of low-income women.  I’d like to walk the walk, and maybe it’s a small gesture…but it’s a start.