Just when we were giving the masterminds of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign a standing ovation for making women of all shapes and sizes feel fabulous…

AdAge.com is reporting that “Dove’s “real beauties” may not be so real after all, at least by the account of a renowned airbrush artist.”

In a May 12 profile in The New Yorker posted online, Pascal Dangin of New York’s Box Studios is quoted as saying he extensively retouched photos used in the Campaign for Real Beauty, which, if true, could seriously undermine an effort that already has subjected Unilever to considerable consumer and activist backlash in recent months.

Models ‘a challenge’
“I mentioned the Dove ad campaign that proudly featured lumpier-than-usual ‘real women’ in their undergarments,” wrote Lauren Collins in the New Yorker article. “It turned out that it was a Dangin job. ‘Do you know how much retouching was on that?’ he asked. ‘But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.’”

A spokeswoman for Unilever didn’t immediately return calls and e-mail for comment. An attempt to reach Mr. Dangin was unsuccessful at press time. But a spokeswoman for the campaign’s creator, Ogilvy & Mather, cast doubt on the account of the celebrity fashion photo retoucher, though she said the agency is still attempting to collect details of his work, if any, on the ads.

“We are unsure right now what he did,” the Ogilvy spokeswoman said. “He works with Annie Leibovitz, the photographer. And we don’t have any record of him actually working on any of the Dove campaign.

“There was no retouching of the women,” she said. “If there was a hair that was up in the air, that might have been the kind of retouching that was done. But until I know what he actually worked on, I can’t comment on it.”

Really.

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