It’s All in the Eye of the Beholder

We’ve all seen the Dove “real beauty” campaign and most of us love it. It’s authenticity is astounding, appealing and worthy of applause – almost more so for the women featured than parent company Unilever and O&M for creating the campaign. Now we hear that the photos may, or may not, have been digitally altered. {sigh} Here we go again…

Didn’t we all think we were finally reaching a place where we can look at the communication put forth by industry leaders and believe it to be real? Weren’t we all proud of Unilever and O&M for stepping into the forefront of this movement so boldly? Weren’t we impressed by the women of the campaign for allowing themselves to be featured in all their glory for the whole world to see, and call them beautiful?

Has this wrinkle really altered the message and impact of the campaign? Has the question of retouching the photos diminished the integrity campaign? Will we view it, and others like it, differently – perhaps with a more scrutinizing eye? Did we ever believe there was really NO digital enhancement of any of those photos in any way – if only to remove dust and correct colours? Aren’t we all just cynical enough to have said, “Imagine my surprise”, when we learned of this tiny fiasco? Is this yet another non-event created by the media in an effort to add fuel to a smoldering fire? Wasn’t there a cyclone in Burma that wiped out more than 100,000 people this week?

These women are still real, somewhat imperfect (on the supermodel scale), and beautiful. The campaign still emphasizes this message for young, and older, women alike. I still love it. I still believe it to be a bold move by both Unilever and O&M. I still believe there are few, if any, photos published for the sake of advertisement that are not retouched in some way.

As a result of this though, the integrity bar has yet again been raised. What will industry response be? I can hardly wait to see…

I suppose it’s not only beauty that lies in the eye of the beholder. Add to that list truth, integrity and relevance.