Friday, May 15, 2009

Australian Teen Magazine DOLLY Publishes "No Retouching" Issue


A teen magazine down under has just launched the "Heart Your Body" campaign, which includes an issue with non-airbrushed photos. Dolly editor Gemma Crisp appeared on Australia's Today show to discuss the campaign.

"Airbrushing in magazines is quite insidious, everyone does it...I'm really worried about girls looking at magazines and these so-called 'perfect' images." A survey conducted by Dolly revealed that four out of five of girls are unhappy with their bodies.

Of course not every image in the magazine, which hit newsstands May 13th, is free of retouching. The editor admits that they often get photos directly from publicists or photo agencies that have already been altered. And while Crisp discusses a series of before/after shots (including Jessica Alba in the Campari ad campaign), revealing how dramatically retouching can alter the shape of someone's body, she's reluctant to admit that Dolly has done any digital slim-downs in the past. She said most of their retouching has been limited to removing red-eye, bruises, and "patchy, fake tan." As part of this new campaign, which includes Kat Dennings and Taylor Swift, non-retouched images will be labeled throughout the magazine.

The campaign seems like a great idea, but they only showed one image from the magazine. It was difficult to see the bruise on actress Jessica Mauboy's arm or the red-eye that Crisp mentioned. And what about the cover? The "all airbrush-free" tagline refers to specific stars (not cover girl Kristen Stewart) and the article included with Today appearance says that "all the action starts on page 61," referring to "retouch-free zones." Did they leave Kristen Stewart alone? Because there is not a blemish or a bruise to be found, and the whites of her eyes are white as white can be.

When asked if this campaign would continue in future issues, Crisp responded: "Probably. Definitely."


"Dolly goes air-brush free" [Nine MSN]

2 comments:

Cyn said...

On the big picture, I can actually see her spots and dark circles. She looks like a normal teenage girl, not like the pale while fragile spotless Twilight character.

But what about an average size (14, OMG!) teenager on the front page instead? If you want to get real, get real.

Cyn said...

On the big picture, I can actually see her spots and dark circles. She looks like a normal teenage girl, not like the pale while fragile spotless Twilight character.

But what about an average size (14, OMG!) teenager on the front page instead? If you want to get real, get real.