Dove is in the midst of a reoutching crisis. Seems those busty, "real women" were touched up. You are so not surprised. Don't pretend. A retoucher who worked on the campaign, Pascal Dangin, was quoted in this week's New Yorker saying the images were heavily [no pun intended] altered. Dangin, who is trying to keep his career in tact, has recanted. Call me a cynic, but I'm yawning my way through this "crisis." Dove has released this statement:

"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."

[source]

Ok...so it is for the creative portion of the Mitsubshi business -- which given previous comments by readers (*cough cough* when you guys did comment on the site) is either a completely soul-sucking account -- or it just sucks to work on because of the ever-changing client needs makes a rollercoaster ride look like a drive through Iowa in comparison. (ed note: I'm full of metaphors today...or full of something...)

The contenders for the $185 million creative account -- all based in Southern California -- are: Omnicom Group's DDB/LA in Venice; and independents Ignited in El Segundo, WongDoody in Seattle and Culver City and Traffic in Los Angeles.

180 (LA), MMB (who in the act of looking up to find out who the hell they were -- well their website broke my browser...instant demerit points there) and Ground Zero are among the shops that did not advance apparently.

BBDO West, the incumbent for the past three years out of San Francisco, did not defend.

The folks at Mitsubishi apparently want to cut back on the TV spend and hike the digital spend -- which puts Organic on the hook too as they are the digital AOR and their work is up for review as well.

This whole thing should finally be wrapped up at the end of the month when final presentations are set to occur.

Ok...so Soccer (or "football" for those so cultured) is not exactly the most popular sport in the US -- but it is the world's most popular sport.

And in the continuing conquest that is Nike commercials (see: Steve Nash)-- they have picked out a winner again.

I'm not a huge football fan -- but this a massive commercial -- and highly entertaining. Leave a comment as see how many "famous" football players and luminaries are shown in the video.

(I love the WAG angle too...)

You are in luck -- Apple has inked a deal with a hell of a lot of movie studios to distribute their movies on iTunes the same day they are released on DVD.

The list of studios include 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.

The first new release titles to go on sale this week include 'American Gangster' and 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'. Other recent movies also available include 'Juno', 'Cloverfield', 'I Am Legend', 'There Will Be Blood' and 'Alvin and the Chipmunks.'

Only US consumers can access the movie downloads area on iTunes at present. New titles are priced at $14.99 and most back catalogue titles at $9.99. The movies can also be rented at $2.99 for a library title and $3.99 for new releases.

The deal could severely change the landscape of the DVD industry, including video rental chains such as Blockbuster, because they will no longer have the window of exclusivity before movies are released online.

Studios previously gave DVD releases a head start of as much as 30 to 45 days over other distribution outlets to help preserve a major income source. I'd sell the stock in Blockbuster tout suite.

Of course, none of this all really matters to those who are in anyway tech savvy -- the studios keep ignoring this BitTorrent technology wave. It allows one to get DVD-quality movies downloaded 2-4 weeks before it comes on DVD -- and the average movie takes less than an hour to download. (ed note: Now...don't go out there and actually do it though -- that would be illegal and we love our readers too much to get the MPAA after your ass.)

They continue on with the "ignorance is bliss" stance... because that is working out so well.

Oh! I love this. It's so gross, I might barf. Just got this press release:

"Today the Indoor Tanning Association (ITA) launched a pre-emptive strike against those who will hype fears about the sun next week on "Melanoma Monday," by running an ad nationally in USA TODAY."

The text of the ad reads:

"Dermatologists and the sunscreen industry have spent millions on a deceptive campaign to scare Americans away from the sun. Now the tide of research is turning the other direction. The positive effects of getting vitamin D from sunlight are clear. So soak up a little sunlight--indoors or out--a couple of times each week, and get your recommended dose of the sunshine vitamin."

Did your stomach do a little flip at the part where they're basically like - "the world has aligned against you baking yourself in the sun? It's a conspiracy! It's the magic bullet theory all over again!"

So, yeah, the sun is good for your skin. That's not new science for starters, but uh... it also causes all sorts of nasty side effects like oh, cancer and premature aging to name two. Gawd bless advertising. Everyone's got a point of view.

American Apparel recently placed an order for 30,000 pounds of organically farmed, less-polluting cotton from California. The purchase was made in partnership with the Sustainable Cotton Project's Cleaner Cotton campaign. Bully to American Apparel.

Meanwhile, Copyranter (yes, he's still in business) pointed out this new "spread" for the company and asks the much needed question:

"Why don't you just start an off-shoot amateur porn Website already?"

Totes. If CEO Dov Charney wants to go there, just do it. Don't pussy foot around with this kind of BS.

Seriously, how can anyone focus on the sustainability efforts of the brand when the T&A is raising such nose that all else is obliterated?
And yeah, maybe Dov doesn't give a crap whether anyone knows that the company is still sweatshop free and dealing in real environmental changes? He obviously doesn't give two little poops about all the folks (both vagina and penis based) with his ad campaigns. Hell, his first quarter sales were pretty darn good. Damn those female chauvinist pigs!

More: - Jezebel's open letter to an AA model

- American Apparel's actual business practices are under attack by the WSJ and others. Check the comments for the company's response.

In another development that marks another nail in the coffin of the prototypical music marketing & distribution model, Coldplay will become the latest band to release music as a free download when they launch their latest single via Coldplay.com.

From 12.15pm on April 29 for a week, fans will be able to download 'Violet Hill', from Coldplay's forthcoming album 'Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends', free of charge.

They fall on the heels of a few other big acts doing the same recently (Radiohead -- who allowed fans to pay whatever they felt for the right to download their latest release in its entirety; Nine Inch Nails -- who's frontman, Trent Reznor, has been a pioneer in using the internet as a delivery method to both reach & interact with fans.)

Just days before the Radiohead news broke, The Charlatans UK announced that they were to give away their forthcoming album 'You Cross My Path' as a free download in a deal with London rock radio station Xfm. Earlier in the year, Prince sparked a major row with music retailer HMV when he gave away his latest album 'Planet Earth' via the newspaper The Mail on Sunday.

I really do love the Olympics - the concept and the hopes, dreams and the brilliantly concocted video biography. I swear. It's like Mike Byrne created them for Nike while he was at W+K. I always find myself tearing up right as the athlete's face is juxtaposed against an American flag backdrop. I like to call it Olympic Porn and it's so satisfying it hurts.

Naturally, I was looking forward to the Beijing Olympics, as much as any other I've been alive for, but christ... China is so complicated. My visions of Olympic Porn (can't you just imagine shots of little powerhouse gymnast Ivana Hong training hard on the beam, talking about she loves math and her grandma, too) are getting more and more tarnished as environmental concerns mount, Tibet rages, terrorists threaten and activists gear up for a real fight.

The latest Olympic debacle involves brands. The group Dream for Darfur is organizing protests against Beijing Olympics sponsors that it says have failed to press China to help end fighting in Darfur. DFD, which boasts of having Mia Farrow as a spokesperson, said 16 companies, including General Electric Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Microsoft Corp., have exhibited "moral cowardice." Meanwhile, brands such as Eastman Kodak Co., Adidas AG and McDonald's Corp. have taken adequate action by the group's standards and will not be targeted.

Dream for Darfur will be protesting at the companies' headquarters and will aim to get viewers turn off commercials during the Games in August.

I believe in activism. I do. Even at the cost of my favorite type of porn. Sigh.

Apple, the brand the geeks all know (and a select few love), has posted a 36 percent gain in quarterly profits after strong global sales of its Macintosh computers and solid iPod sales, but remains cautious for the rest of 2008.

The company surpassed analysts expectations and made a net profit of $1.05 billion in the first quarter of 2008, compared with $770 million in the same period a year earlier.

Apple also shipped 1.5 million Mac computers during the quarter, representing 36 per cent annual growth. The company also sold 10.6 million iPods during the quarter, a 1 per cent rise, and shipped 1.7 million iPhones.

However, considered as part of a luxury consumer goods business, Apple is expected to be vulnerable to any economic downturn in the US, leading it to set relatively low revenue expectations of $7.2 billion (£3.6bn) for the next quarter, with gross margins tipped to be down around 35 per cent year-on-year.

Talk about product placement! Check out the three A&F studs in the background of Obama's concession speech last night.