Dove vs retouching

This is Dove Canada’s promotional piece by Olgivy Toronta of a bit of guerilla marketing they employed against the designers, art directors and retouchers who trim models in advertising to make them look more perfect. It’s a laudable goal to ask society to look at itself without the rose tinted goggles on.

They created a Photoshop action (a script that runs automatically on a button press in Photoshop to speed up repetitive tasks), and sent it round the various forums and download sites designers visit. When pressed the Dove action removed all editing and popped up a message asking the designer not to manipulate our perceptions of real beauty.

I’ve no idea how many times this was downloaded or actioned. I’m guessing that the YouTube video has been more successful than the actual Photoshop Action was. As with all these stunts, the 10-50 people that actually witness or experience guerilla marketing often have a very different view of its effect than the million or so who watch the carefully edited video later….

God, the music in this is awful. Seems to be a horrible trend in adverts these days. I’m off to have my ears looked at.