Olay will stop retouching photos by the end of 2020
Things have been slowly changing in the beauty and fashion industry for some time.
With moves towards sustainable shopping and plastic reduction, now Olay have announced plans to stop the retouching of their photos by the end of 2020.
It’s a big step for the skincare brand, which is owned by P&G, and it’s certainly a welcome one.
The move will hopefully see other skincare heavyweights following suit.
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Consumers have made their feelings clear about the lack of representation within the beauty industry.
Airbrushed models no longer provide people with aspirational content and instead leave the public comparing themselves to digitally enhanced imagery.
This isn’t exclusive to the beauty industry, though. In technology, 2020 is the year of the inclusive emoji, which includes gender-neutral additions amongst a host of others.
We’ve also seen positive steps taken in other marketing, including Air Canada’s pledge to use gender neutral terminology.
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Within beauty, we’ve seen the beginnings of some positive changes.
The likes of Mac and Urban Decay have posted images on social media showing “real skin”.
But, this is the first definitive step from a brand to pledge a complete change in its approach by the end of 2020.
The plan includes photos in print, digital, TV and out-of-home adverts.
The news was revealed in conjunction with its new campaign, My Olay.
The campaign stars Lilly Singh, Denise Bidot and Busy Phillipps, who put an Instagram post out saying she was “proud” of the brand’s commitment.
While the brand transitions, a “real skin promise” badge will be shown on all retouched images in North America. This is, however, something that’s already happening in the UK.
Olay’s senior communications manager, Kate DiCarlo, described the move as a “massive undertaking”.
She said: “If a brand as large as Olay can do this, anyone can do this.”
She continued in a statement: “The commitment of Olay’s Real Skin Promise is something that, in the UK and Ireland, we are pleased to already have been doing and will continue to do. We want to spread the fearless message more broadly to inspire more women to be unapologetically true to themselves and North America’s team’s work is another step in our global mission.”
We are clapping so hard right now.
