Dove strips down photo-editing on selfies to show real untouched beauty

Using photo-editing apps to alter selfies is a common phenomenon but many women may feel anxious about posting non-edited photos online. In an ongoing campaign in China, Dove explored their anxiety and invited them to participate in a photoshoot and post a set of unedited pictures. The campaign “My Beauty, My Say” (我的美，我說了算) includes a five-minute video, documenting a number of young Chinese women who shared their personal stories about their appearance.

They said that posting untouched pictures was like being stripped online. They also talked about their beauty anxiety and which part of their face and bodies they preferred to alter before sharing them online.

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When confronted with childhood pictures of themselves, the respondents said they realised that their younger selves didn’t need any photo filters. When asked if they would like to be part of a photoshoot and post a set of unedited pictures of themselves, they were initially reluctant but eventually agreed. "With the advancement in mobile technologies and applications – especially in China and Asia, digital distortion is now happening on a much bigger scale with selfie beautification apps having profoundly changed how we look at ourselves and each other," said Alessandro Manfredi, executive vice president of Dove.

"We see so much creativity and expression of self-identity through the use of filters and editing apps, but these apps are used to digitally distort images to conform to narrow beauty standards. Women, in particular, feel the pressure to edit and distort themselves to create something ‘ideal’ which cannot be achieved in real life," he added. In addition to the video, the campaign consisted of unedited pictures of the women participating in the campaign. It ran across China and will launch globally in the coming months. Manfredi said the brand wanted to highlight this issue as part of its "No Digital Distortion" Mark, letting everyone know that women in the brand's ads were identical to the one that people can see in real life.

"In the making of the campaign, we met with nearly a hundred women who shared their emotional stories with us. We feel that it’s so important that we continue to highlight how skewed beauty expectations have become, and promote women's natural beauty”, said Sherry Shi, Creative at Forsman & Bodenfors Shanghai.

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