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Olay Will No Longer Retouch Models' Complexions in Its Skin Care Ads


Photoshop in advertising is no secret—as is the result it’s had on the way we see ourselves. It’s something the beauty industry has reckoned with over the past few years as women demand to see more realistic imagery in the world around us. And now Olay is delivering: The brand just announced it’s officially committed to “zero skin retouching” in all of its advertising materials, including content created by Olay’s influencer partners.

Olay admits in a statement that women face outrageous, and often conflicting, expectations about their appearance from the beauty industry and society as a whole. “In the U.S., 40% of women surveyed by Mintel said they felt beauty advertisements impart an unrealistic expectation, making it unclear what was actually achievable,” the statement reads.

So Olay is making a big change. Starting with a campaign led by actress Busy Philipps, model Denise Bidot, and comedian Lilly Singh, the company’s advertisements will be paired with an “Olay Skin Promise” logo, assuring buyers that the ad was completely untouched. Beyond the initial launch, you can expect to see the logo on all the brand’s imagery across print, digital, and TV by 2021. If this all sounds familiar, Olay is partnering with CVS, who launched its own campaign against excessive Photoshop in beauty ads in 2018.

Courtesy of Olay

Philipps, for one, is thrilled to be a part of this particular body-positive movement. “For Olay to take this stand and say, ‘We’re about skin care, we’re about having you feel your best and having you feel like your most confident self’, it’s a really big deal,” she said in a statement. “The more huge companies like Olay that can stand up, the better everyone’s going to be. You want to see yourself reflected. You don’t want to see something that’s completely unattainable because that’s not real.”

Philipps went on to tell Allure about her own experiences being altered in photoshoots. “My moles are such defining characteristics of my skin—it’s who I am,” she said. “So to have that message sent to me in the beginning of my career caused a lot of self-doubt.”

Busy Philipps and Olay skincare
Courtesy of Olay

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes. Olay is far from the only beauty and lifestyle brand taking the leap into unretouched advertisements. Aerie just announced its latest group of #AerieREAL Role Models with an unretouched photoshoot, for example. But the world of Instagram influencers is still a mostly unregulated land of perceived perfection and Facetune. Hopefully, this is just one of many steps in changing toxic messaging online.

“I think people are so conditioned to see a ‘perfect’ face staring back at them on Instagram,” Philipps said. “And the more those [types of retouched] images get out there, the more it reinforces a normal that is not normal.”



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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Are ‘No Longer Working Members of the Royal Family’


After days of negotiations, the royal family has decided what’s next for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. The verdict? They are indeed stepping down from their senior royal positions and are “no longer working members of the royal family.”

Sussex Royal, the official Instagram account of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, released a written statement from Queen Elizabeth on Saturday, January 18. In it, Queen Elizabeth says that, “I am pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family.”

She continues, “I recognise the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life. I want to thank them for all their dedicated work across this country, the Commonwealth, and beyond, and am particularly proud of how Meghan has so quickly become one of our family.”

The details for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s new arrangement were outlined in a separate statement from Buckingham Palace. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will still be referred to as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but they will no longer use “HRH” titles. The couple are officially no longer working members of the royal family and can no longer formally represent the Queen. However, the couple assures that “everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty.”

Financial arrangements were also shared in Buckingham Palace’s statement. The couple will repay the taxpayer money that contributed to the refurbishment of their royal residence, Frogmore Cottage. They’ll also stop receiving public funds for royal duties.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s new arrangement will go into effect sometime this spring, per the statement from Buckingham Palace. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are grateful to Her Majesty and the Royal Family for their ongoing support as they embark on the next chapter of their lives.”

This story is developing, but we’ll continue to update this post with details.



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Emilia Clarke No Longer Takes Selfies With Fans Following This Traumatic Event


Emilia Clarke said she won’t be taking selfies with fans anymore after a traumatic experience made her reconsider how she wants to interact with people when they see her in public.

In a recent interview on the Table Manners podcast, the Game of Thrones star discussed a particular stressful incident when a fan approached her for a photo at an airport.

“I was genuinely walking through an airport and I suddenly started having what I can only believe to be a panic attack brought on by complete exhaustion,” she recalled per Time.

The actor continued, “I was on my own, I was on the phone to my mum saying, ‘I feel like I can’t breathe, I don’t know what’s going on.’ ‘I’m there and the tears are coming out. I’m crying and crying, this guy’s like, ‘Can I get a selfie?’ And I was like, ‘I can’t breathe, I’m really sorry. Just having a minute.’ It was after a few moments like that where I was like, ‘I don’t know how to do this.’”

Clarke said the encounter made her realize she wants to engage in more meaningful and “human-to-human” interactions with her fans in the future. But she said she’s still happy to sign autographs if they want to remember the moment.

“When you do that, you have to have an interaction with that person, as opposed to someone just going, ‘Oi, give us a selfie, goodbye.’,” she said. “Then you have a chat and you’re actually having a truthful human-to-human thing, as opposed to it being this other thing that probably isn’t nice for them and isn’t nice to you.”

The 33-year-old acknowledged that although she signed up for fame, she’s “been trying to navigate how I can [interact with fans] without feeling like my soul is completely empty. Because they don’t really want to talk to you.”

“When you do a signing thing, you can actually look into their eyes and have a proper real human thing,” she added.

Just like that, Clarke found a way to put an end to fleeting selfies and contribute to her own mental well-being.



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David's Bridal Will No Longer Charge More for Plus-Size Wedding Dresses


One of the largest retail chains for wedding attire is making a massive change to their pricing structure—at last.

David’s Bridal announced it will no longer charge higher prices for plus-size wedding dresses and bridesmaids’ gowns. “On average, the up charge for a plus-size wedding gown is nearly 15 percent, and we do not believe that a woman’s size should determine how much she pays,” Jim Marcum, CEO of David’s Bridal, said in a statement given to Glamour. “Since I started at David’s Bridal just over four months ago, I have made it my number one priority to serve all brides, making it our mission to remind every bride that she is beautiful.”

David’s Bridal has been size-inclusive—carrying size 0 through 30W—for some time, but now it’s also making sure the brand is treating all of its customers fairly when it comes to price, the deciding factor for so many brides-to-be. (The brand also recently announced the introduction of free returns and exchanges.)

“Going forward, all brides and bridesmaids will pay the same price for the same style, regardless of the size,” the statement added.

While equal pricing no matter size seems totally logical, it simply has not been the way the business model has worked previously. The so-called “fat tax” (or price parity) is not exclusive to the bridal industry and generally pervasive across many retail brands. (Airlines and spas have also been accused of up-charging larger customers.)

“Yes, it takes more fabric to make a larger garment versus a smaller one, which could be why some people want to put that back onto the customer, but that doesn’t seem like the right way to do things,” Chromat’s Becca McCharen-Tran told Glamour earlier this year, adding that designers can adjust wholesale margins based on the largest size they sell to offset expenses while keeping the price consistent. “If I were a designer working with leather or an expensive fabric, I would alter the margin to reflect the most expensive version. It’s offensive to charge it back to the customer.”

Hopefully more brands, bridal and otherwise, will follow suit.



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Pinterest and The Knot Will No Longer Romanticize Wedding Venues on Former Slave Plantations


Pinterest and wedding website The Knot have faced criticism for content that romanticizes weddings held on former slave plantations, and according to a new report, they’re finally changing their policies. In a BuzzFeed News exclusive, the two platforms say they’re issuing new guidelines and rethinking the language used when discussing vendors and venues linked to plantation history.

Color of Change, a civil rights advocacy group, had outlined the ways in which promoting former slave plantations is harmful in letters sent to Pinterest and The Knot, as well as to Zola, Brides, and Martha Stewart Weddings. According to BuzzFeed, the letters explained that “plantations are physical reminders of one of the most horrific human rights abuses the world has ever seen. The wedding industry routinely denies the violent conditions Black people faced under chattel slavery by promoting plantations as romantic places to marry.” Color of Change also wrote that “the decision to glorify plantations as nostalgic sites of celebration is not an empowering one for the Black women and justice-minded people who use your site.”

The Knot is now working with the organization to change its approach. BuzzFeed News spoke to Dhanusha Sivajee, chief marketing officer of The Knot’s umbrella company, The Knot Worldwide (which also owns Wedding Wire), who explained that although venues and vendors associated with plantation history will still appear on the site, the language used in regard to them will change. The guidelines The Knot is figuring out will limit vendor descriptions that glamorize former slave plantations by characterizing them as “charming” or “elegant.” “We want to make sure we’re serving all our couples and that they don’t feel in any way discriminated against,” Sivajee told BuzzFeed News.

Pinterest has similar plans. A spokesperson also told BuzzFeed News that the company plans to de-index plantation weddings in its Google searches and limit wedding plantation content on the platform. People will be able to find the content if they look for it, but it’ll come with an advisory notice that states it could violate policy. “Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things,” the spokesperson told BuzzFeed in an email. “We are working to limit the distribution of this content and accounts across our platform, and continue to not accept advertisements for them.”

The romanticization of plantation venues has been an unsettling trend in the wedding industry, and even celebrities have been called out for embracing the uncomfortable fad. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were criticized online after getting married at Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina in 2012.



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Wimbledon Will No Longer Address Female Players as ‘Miss,’ ‘Ms.,’ and ‘Mrs.’


Wimbledon, one of tennis’s Grand Slam tournaments, got underway this week in England. Kate Middleton has already dropped by to watch matches, and the first major upset is in the books as 15-year-old American Cori “Coco” Gauff defeated one of her idols, Venus Williams, on Monday (July 1).

But there’s another substantial talking point at this year’s championships that is making headlines: Umpires will no longer refer to female players as “Miss,” “Ms.,” or “Mrs.” during matches. In the past, when a woman won a game, set, or match, the umpire would announce, for example, “Game, Miss or Mrs. [insert name here].” This is different from the men’s matches, during which they are referred to only by their last names. More attention was called to the tradition when Serena Williams was referred to as “Mrs. Williams” after her marriage to Alexis Ohanian, even though she chose to keep her own name. (Last month the French Open made a similar decision, while the U.S. and Australian Opens make no such gender distinction when addressing players during matches.)

“We’ve got to move with the times,” Alexandra Willis, head of communications, content, and digital for the All England Club, told U.K.’s Telegraph. “Hopefully, we surprise people with the way we do that. Some of the traditions—white clothing, playing on grass—they are our greatest strengths and the things that we do. Others absolutely have to move with the times. You have to respect the wishes of the players. I suppose the challenge for us is: how much you rewrite history.”

The paper reports that players “will be allowed to request that they are referred to as ‘Miss,’ ‘Mrs.,’ ‘Ms.,’ or ‘Mr.’ when there are code violations, medical announcements, and player challenges during a game.”

Men’s world number one Novak Djokovic said he was somewhat surprised by the move. “I thought that tradition was very unique and very special. I thought it was nice,” he said. “It’s definitely not easy to alter or change any traditions here that have been present for many years. It’s quite surprising that they’ve done that.”

Williams has yet to comment on the change, but a British player Heather Watson told the paper, “Equality is good.”



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