Dove Vs. The Retoucher: Company At Standoff Allegations Of "Real Beauty" Airbrushing

It was a few lines in a 6,000-word article, but it threw Unilever and its advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, into a tizzy of denials, explanations and spin control.

Whether or not the truth is finally known, the question remains whether the revelation that some of the Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty" ads may have been retouched will go down as a footnote in advertising history or rate among its biggest scandals, alongside Campbell's marbles in the soup.

As with many controversies, it began innocently enough, with a comment buried deep in a profile of Pascal Dangin, a prominent photo retoucher, in a May 12 New Yorker story penned by Lauren Collins.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[situationcritical]

FYI - this woman is currently the best retoucher in the business. She's almost wholly responsible for the look of magazine covers today. http://www.amydresser.com/.

[situationcritical]

An airbrush is a mechanical painting tool.

These days there is Adobe Creative Suite 3 which includes Photoshop and Bridge.

Why on earth would anyone use an airbrush on their expensive 30 inch flat panel monitor?

[wm1066]

The word airbrush is a term that is a hangover from past technologies.
Retouch artists used actual air brushes to clean up an image.
Before air brush it was guache painted on.

[ugmold]

More Eva Mendes less old bags...lol

[TrueBlueMajority]

this is news? everything is retouched! there is no such thing as a woman in a major ad campaign that has not been altered. that's why it is sad that so many young women are trying to make themselves look like the "perfect" images they see in fashion magazines. those women don't exist in reality; they are computer enhanced creations.

[Blurp]

Everything's retouched to some extent.

[wadenelson1]

Some nitwit executive / MBA wants pictures that are absolutely perfect but HAVEN'T BEEN RETOUCHED. So you hire some outside contractor to Photoshop them and keep your mouth shut about it and keep your job.

[wm1066]

"You touch it once then you touch it again", Spanky Macfarland explaining what is retouching when they went to have thier picture taken by a professional photographer.
Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

[Sundialsvc4]

Dude, that's what you DO! You shoot the best shot that you can, then you retouch.

[NoSillyName]

Is this surprising? There is no "reality" in advertising or publications. Sad thing is that women see these images and feel they can't live up to cultural expectations.

And guess who did those photos.... Leibovitz. She refused to comment whether the images were retouched or not.

[wm1066]

You didn't read the article, Leibovitz did respond to say they were not altered except to remove dust and color correct, both acceptable practices.
Why do you dislike Anne?

[NoSillyName]

wm, I did. Beyond the part about dust & color correction, there was this:

"... Ms. Leibovitz's agency... declined to elaborate on what the "color correction entailed," and declined to respond by deadline... to a report from a person familiar with the matter that Mr. Dangin had admitted specifically to removing veins from the images of the women. ... and that Mr. Dangin had been employed by Ms. Leibovitz..."

"So while the story implied that an... ad showing real women in "undergarments" was retouched by Mr. Dangin, in fact the women in the ads he said he retouched were nude. Mr. Dangin worked only on the nude photos... photographed by Ms. Leibovitz, not earlier campaign photos of women in their underwear..."

"... Leibovitz... declined to make the original proofs or digital renderings from the ... shoot behind the campaign available for inspection or publication."

I've commented elsewhere ( M. Cyrus article) that I used to respect AL when she was avant-garde and doing the R&R photos, especially for Rolling Stone. Now she is mainstream and overexposed (yes). Kudos on her huge success, but I don't seek out her work anymore.

Almost 20 years ago, I photographed her at a small booksigning and enjoyed her & her work. She was still humble and accessible then & doing interesting work. I don't find ad campaigns or covers interesting. I'll bet she has her underlings doing all the work and she steps in to take the shots. JMO (had to shorten post.)