• `Ad Age, Friday, May 9, 2008 10:15 AM

In a joint statement provided by Unilever regarding its "Campaign for Real Beauty," the company, photographer Annie Leibovitz, and photo retoucher Pascal Dangin all deny substantially altering images in the much-lauded campaign. Dangin kicked off the controversy with a quote he said was taken out of context in an interview with The New Yorker magazine.

Dove's "real beauties" were not airbrushed, but their photos were treated to eliminate dust from the film and provide "color correction," the statement says.

In a separate statement, Dangin says: "My quotes have been taken out of context and my role with Dove misconstrued." Dangin worked only on the 2007 Dove Pro-Age campaign taken by Annie Leibovitz, he says, not the original Dove "real women" ad from 2005. Calls and an e-mail to The New Yorker and Lauren Collins, author of the piece, weren't returned by press time.

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