[Updated] Last Dove Story - I Promise
May 8th, 2008 by FuzzTagged as: adage, dove, hypocrites, unilever.
It looks like the Dove campaign may be full of more shit than is ethically possible. From AdAge:
Dove’s “real beauties” may not be so real after all, at least by the account of a renowned airbrush artist. In a May 12 profile in The New Yorker posted online, Pascal Dangin of New York’s Box Studios is quoted as saying he extensively retouched photos used in the Campaign for Real Beauty, which, if true, could seriously undermine an effort that already has subjected Unilever to considerable consumer and activist backlash in recent months.
[UPDATE] Dove says it ain’t so.
Dove’s “real beauties” were not airbrushed, but their photos were treated to eliminate dust from the film and provide “color correction,” according to Unilever and celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.
In a joint statement provided by Unilever regarding its “Campaign for Real Beauty,” the company, Ms. Leibovitz, who created the ads in question, and the celebrity photo re-toucher she works with — Pascal Dangin, who kicked off the controversy with a quote he said was taken out of context in an interview with The New Yorker magazine — all denied substantially altering images in the much-lauded campaign.
Ugh.
