For those of you who don't receive Ad Age's e-newsletter, you might have missed the story yesterday about the Dove "Real Beauty" campaign.  The ads showed women of various ages, shapes and colors in their underwear and claimed all women are beautiful on the inside and outside.  Well, perhaps they didn't really believe it themselves.

The Ad Age article references a feature in the New Yorker, in which the author recounts: "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.'"

Ouch!  I actually liked those ads and the lack of vanity they portrayed (or so I thought!).

Remember Dove and their Hollywood retouching the next time you set up photos for your view books and collateral pieces.  Your campus should visually and accurately depict themselves in those pieces.  If you are predominantly female, that needs to show.  If you have low diversity, placing diverse-looking students in every frame is misleading. 

Remember that whatever you show to students and their parents, they will (and should) expect to see on your campus when they visit.  You will need to LIVE those promises, so don't over promise and under deliver.  If you do, you are going to disappoint them, just like Dove disappointed me.

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot

PS-- as of today, Dove has denied the photos were altered.  Note to self... if I ever need to refute something in the media, do it in a timely manner.  Otherwise, you look like you have something to hide or you are stretching the truth.