Dove & Dangin Controversy

Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty emphasizes a woman’s inner beauty. The campaign succeeds on both a public relations and advertising level. The campaign uses “real women” models and authentic photos. For the four years, Dove has harped upon its genuine interest in women’s self-esteem. Dove has even produced videos like “Onslaught” and “Evolution” that demonstrate the unnatural depictions of women in the media.

However, in The New Yorker magazine last week one of Dove’s touch-up artists, Pascal Dangin, expressed his involvement in the Pro-Age portion of the Campaign for Real Beauty. “Do you know how much retouching was on that?” Dangin said. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”

(Pascal Dangin photo courtesy of The New Yorker magazine)

In the same article, Dangin’s work is characterized by a “whiff of black magic” and it’s “not often discussed outside of [fashion circles].” Could the Dove photographs be phonies?

Dove representatives immediately responded that the photos were not retouched beyond basic color correction and dust removal. The photographer and Dangin himself joined Dove by saying that the photographs were authentic. Dangin said his quote was taken out of context.

So, where is the controversy? Dangin and Dove both refute the fact the photos were retouched beyond basic, ethical changes. However, from the beginning of the campaign, Dove has maintained that its photos are not retouched. Dove promised models in the Pro-Age campaign that their photos were not retouched. Wendy Katzman, one of the models, told Advertising Age magazine, “We asked and were explicitly told that none of our [Dove Pro-Age] photos were retouched. I just heard about The New Yorker article last night and was pretty upset about it!”

Despite the minor changes, Dove maintained from the beginning that it did not change the photographs. These inconsistent statements led to Dove’s seemingly contradictory behavior. Will Dove lose some of its brand power from this latest controversy? Does this issue even matter? Let me know your thoughts.