Even Dove's “real” women are digitally enhanced
- added May 8, 2008
- 24 responses
This makes me so mad! Dove has been retouching their women in these campaigns
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I'm not really surprised. Still though, I think it's a step in the right direction. You're never going to convince the media to stop retouching everything (they do it to girls, guys, food, products...), but at least these girls are a more realistic representation of what the average woman looks like.
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The New Yorker article referenced in the blog was actually really interesting.
Still, it's sad that we've reached the point where we airbrush everything so much that I think we're losing all concept of what realistic beauty is. -
Beauty is something you will never be able to take out of the media. Everything nowadays has to look perfect in every dimension. Its sad to say, but its going to stay that way.
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Ok...this doesn't suprise me at all! It's the media, of course it's going to be retouched!
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That's what has always irked me -- this absolute refusal by casting agents to put non-gentically perfect people in any visual media.
Look at the movie Cloverfield! One of my big complaints about that movie is that everyone is gentically perfect. No one is obese, or disfigured or too "ethnic" as the Hollywood-types refer to non-white actors.
Look at America's Next Top Model (er, not that I ever watch that show) -- but even the "plus size" contestant is -- what? -- a 3 instead of a zero?
That gives us a good idea of how Hollywood thinks. Any number above size zero equals "morbidly obese." -
i know one thing - that deathly white chic 3rd from the right has been enhanced - no-one is that white - and if anyone could be that white they'd have red hair . doves are white right - at least the better kind .
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I don't know--I'm that white, and I have brown hair.
(And I don't tan. I just get horrific sunburns. But let's not bring up those painful memories.) -
Malathion -
Um, I'm that white and I'm naturally blonde. A lot of girls are that white. Maybe you just think she looks unusually white because she's standing next to so many girls with darker skin? -
I dont think most people can define what real beauty is, and for that reason the media will keep creating it for us...
On the way to Song, Yang meets a man at the twon of Ni, who has two wives. One is pretty and the other plain. Yet he favors the plain wife. So Yang asks he why?
The man answers:
"The pretty one knows she is pretty. I don't.
The plain one knows she is plain. I don't.
A bad person knows he is bad. I don't."
Yang says:
"I shall remember the lesson.
The Saint behaves as a Saint, by his own volition."
LieZi -
Malathion:
I'm definitely that white. My friends call me transparent sometimes :)
On the larger topic: Perfection sells. Honda wouldn't put a 1991 beater Civic on a tv ad any more than L'Oreal would put a worn "real" looking 50 year old woman on their tv ads. -
If they showed us real people, we'd have no reason to buy the product.
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Airbrushing, second life, stem cell jackets, robot vacuum cleaners....yikes. Whatever happened to the simple life. I am not talking churning my own butter and beating my clothes over a rock, but really...real life is nice...and it ain't gonna be around long.
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Put me in the "not surprised" column. Every photo you see in magazines or on TV has this trickery.
They probably smoothed out a lot of cottage cheese lookin' bits around the thighs. Makes me wonder if that girl's tattoo is real or did they just add it to make the group look more diverse? -
i'm not convinced . notice how prominently that ivory white girl stands out from the rest - tell me that isn't intentional - her glaring whiteness is so obviously a marketing ploy that it approaches racism - even if she is really that white , the fact remains that she is just too white to not be a sales pitch ....
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Such things infuriate me. I'm naturally very tall and fairly skinny (according to some people, I consider myself average and couldn't hurt to gain some weight) so I'm always told I should be a model, but even when I was little I usually responded with "Sorry, I come from a restuarant family and love food. I don't think Hollywood would like that very." At this rate we might as well revert to wearing corsets and bustles.
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It's no different than food photography. You wouldn't advertise what an apple looks like when it has brown spots, nicks or blemishes either right?
Why is anyone suprised that the images were photoshopped?
The point of the campaign was that the women had more realistic proportions, not that the photos weren't retouched in some way.
Maybe some people that complain about it not being "real enough" should get some experience doing some of the VCAM's? That might give them a more informed opinion about what works in advertising -
its hilarious that this even makes news. if you believed it wasn't touched up you were being naive
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@malathion: I agree with you - it's completely posed .. they're trying to highlight her 'unconventional beauty'. She's also posed at a point that's equivalent to the golden mean - which adds a nice sense of balance.
I suppose fair skin can also equal 'unprotected vulnerable skin', which needs the extra care that a 'special' product like Dove can provide.
The thing is, advertising is all about lies and manipulation. It doesn't matter whether they stop digitally retouching - advertisers are in the business of changing the way you and I feel about their products, with the sole purpose of making that sale. They're not paid to care about anything else. It's really, really bad.
Let all go adbusting -
I don't think its about being naive of these industry tactics. We all know that they are in the business of sales. They create an image of what we want, or at least what we appear to want. Therefore, its not really their fault for packaging it this way. This ad campaign would not work in Africa, because they have different image of beauty there. So I ask again, is it the ad, or the people who respond to the ad, that maintain the perception of beauty?
Oh and for all those who compared man made products with flaws such as Apple computers, to God given unaltered beauty, there is no comparison, flaws and all....
Peace -
you're on it Iwhi - notice how the albino girl's right arm is darkened ( blemished ) by being in close proximity to the darker skinned girl on the left , in the pic. - as if her perfection has been tarnished by being in the shadow of what looks exactly like a smiling black female .
long live "Adbusters" -
now is everyone really shocked??
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WTF. come on. seriously.
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- vegemite1962
- 2 months ago
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if "god is in the details" , then he's hiding from me .
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should boycott such hypocrites, at least others brands don't cheat that bad and low !
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- alexandrek
- 23 days ago
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