By: Amanda Bøje Petersen
We are blown away by these brands who are leading the fight against the polished and edited visual expression of the world. Read more below if you're interested in learning more about companies' way of embracing unpolished images in their brand identity.
Dove
Dove's vision is to help women see their full potential by creating a framework for the formation of self-confidence, so that women can develop a positive view of themselves and their bodies. They bring this to the world using their wide-ranging imagery, where the female body in all sizes and shapes makes it easy for women to see themselves in Dove's products and values (Dove, u.d.).
Dove also uses their voice in the world to express their messages. They do this, for example, by creating educational materials for teachers and parents so they can help their kids grow up in a SoMe world that is both polished and unreal. That's why they've made it their brand mission to help the young generation love their bodies and their looks. Today, they have reached 60 million young people, but they strive to increase this number even further (Dove, u.d.).
Dove is an international brand that strives to lead the way for other brands in the world. Here at RE:TOUCH we can’t get enough of Dove and hope many other brands will learn from Dove and think about how they can help create a more realistic image of the world themselves.
AEO Inc.
AEO Inc. is a retailer selling clothing and accessories under the American Eagle and Aerie brands. In addition, they do various initiatives where they support different causes and organizations in the world.
In 2014 AEO Inc. created their first #AerieREAL campaign which was about showing a more realistic picture of the body (AEO, u.d.). In addition, the campaign photos weren’t retouched, so show everyone how a body could look like without photoshop. This ended up in the community called #AerieREAL Life where they focus on different topics like Mental Health, Self-Esteem, and Sustainability (AE, u.d.). They describe their mission as:
” The Aerie Real Foundation™ works to build confidence in women, foster an inclusive community, and protect our planet to make the world a better place for all.” (AE, u.d.).
Lastly they have a no retouching policy which we here at RE:TOUCH loves (AE, u.d.)! It's important that everyone can see themselves in their clothes and feel beautiful without having to strive to look like a person that only exists because of Photoshop. Let's keep it realistic!
Modcloth
Modcloth is a clothing brand for women, who sell clothes from size XS to 4XL. In addition, they have made a community and a blog where they use pictures of the body in all sizes and shapes (Modcloth, u.d.). They describe themselves as:
” Our community is welcoming to all — no matter their size, color, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. We’re committed to providing as many styles in sizes XS – 4X, with 100% of ModCloth label available in this size range” (Modcloth, u.d.).
Furthermore, Modcloth was the first retailer brand that signed the “Heroes Pledge for Advertisers” which is an anti-photoshop pledge. Modcloth has since 2014 been promising not to re-touch their photos, which makes them a leading example that we think many other brands should follow (Adamczyk, 2014).
We wish we could share many other brands in this article, but unfortunately, very few brands have taken up the challenge of polished images in their branding. However, we see examples of brands such as ASOS showing stretch marks and models' tattoos when advertising their clothing (ASOS, u.d.). Sadly, they are not consistent with this, which is generally the issue in this discussion. It has become too easy to brand yourself as being transparent and showing "the normal human" which is why you also see trends where brands edit out pimples, freckles, etc. into the models to show diversity. This is a long talk, so stay tuned for next week's posts here on RE:TOUCH if you want to know more about this. We promise it will be both exciting and surprising.
Bibliography
Adamczyk, A. (2014, August 14th). Forbes. Retrieved from ModCloth Is First Retailer To Sign Anti-Photoshop Pledge: https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciaadamczyk/2014/08/14/modcloth-is-first-retailer-to-sign-anti-photoshop-pledge/?sh=4388da73615a
AE. (n.d.). #AerieREAL Life. Retrieved October 19th, 2022, from Aerie Real Life Foundation: https://www.ae.com/aerie-real-life/aerie-real-foundation/
AEO. (n.d.). AEO INC. Retrieved October 19th, 2022, from About AEO: https://www.aeo-inc.com/about-aeo/
ASOS. (n.d.). ASOS. Retrieved October 26th, 2022, from ASOS Has Stopped Airbrushing Their Swimwear Models And We Love Seeing Those Beautiful Stretch Marks: https://www.elle.com/uk/beauty/body-and-physical-health/news/a36784/asos-has-stopped-airbrushing-their-swimwear-models-and-we-love-it/?fbclid=IwAR3v6RBxs2gsKfb8zn8xDyqnLfgZMV_mjf-JmFf285XBv4TEFoE_T4DcXVk
Dove. (n.d.). Dove. Retrieved October 19th, 2022, from Our Vision: https://www.dove.com/dk/stories/about-dove/our-vision.html
Dove. (n.d.). Dove. Retrieved October 19th, 2022, from Our Mission: https://www.dove.com/dk/selvvaerd/our-mission.html
Modcloth. (n.d.). Modcloth. Retrieved October 19th, 2022, from About us: https://modcloth.com/pages/about-us-page