Dove’s Touch Up Is Not So Touching

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]

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.