Hasta La Creative!

This morning, I checked my email as usual and opened up my daily AdAge email. The first thing I read is an article about how Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty might not be so… real. It has come out that renowned photo retoucher, Pascal Dangin, may have had something to do with Annie Liebowitz’s final photos. After Dangin was featured in an article for The New Yorker, the writer, Lauren Collins, found out that Real Beauty was a Dangin job. Of course, there is still doubt out there about the extent, if any, of Dangin’s involvement and if he worked with Liebowitz this time around.

 

So what will this mean for Dove and even Ogilvy? While something like this could definitely cause an uproar, I wonder, from a personal stance, how this will really affect how women will look at Dove products. In my opinion, okay, so they were touched up. But when I look at the photos I still see women who aren’t stick thin, have curves, wrinkles, tattoos and other “imperfections.” I still see real women. I see a woman, that if I walked out of my house right now and started walking down the street, I would run into in my little town.

 

In the same breath, we all remember the award-winning “Evolution” viral video, one that takes a stab at the act of photo-retouching.

 

Hello, hypocrisy. So, as a woman, what am I supposed to think about this? What is Dove trying to tell me? It’s okay to be real but only so real? Maybe I should be okay with not being a size two but not too okay with it? Maybe I should be self-conscious about a blemish but that tattoo I regret is okay? I’m interested to see how this story unfolds but in the meantime, how do you all feel about this coming out? 

Technorati Tags: Dove, Real Beauty, viral, campaign, beauty products, photo retouching, airbrushing, controversy