Vogue slammed for using able-bodied actors to promote Paralympics and Photoshopping disabilities
Fashion mag edits in amputated limbs and prosthetic leg in Rio 2106 campaign
VOGUE Brazil has been slammed for using able-bodied actors to promote the 2016 Paralympics – and Photoshopping in their disabilities.
The campaign featured actors Cleo Pires and Paulo Vilhena, ambassadors for the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB).
But the mag edited the images to include the disabilities Paralympic table tennis player Bruna Alexandre, who had her right arm amputated at three months, and sitting volleyball player Renato Leite, who has a prosthetic leg.
The high-end fashion mag ran the poster under the headline “We are all Paralympians”.
The internet wasn’t happy.
Their campaign backfired spectacularly as the baffled social media users and disability charities slammed the images for not featuring either real Paralympians or disabled models.
A user called K said: “We need to end Vogue. This s**t is out of control, they're pathetic now. They are not disabled.”
Beth Elderkin wrote: “Brazilian @Vogue took able-bodied models and Photoshopped disabilities onto them, because reasons.”
Richard Lane, of disablility charity Scope, said: “Hard to understand why Vogue Brazil felt the need to use models who aren’t disabled in Paralympic shoot."
Natalio Belizario, of the feminist site Lado M, said: “There’s no shortage of disabled people to take the place of spokesperson in these adverts and show society that yes, they exist and they deserve as much space in the media as us.
“No, we are not all Paralympians. We still do not understand the reality of people with disabilities.
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“We can all be supporters of the Paralympic movement, but it is always good to remember that the role, more than ever, is not ours.”
The Vogue Brazil art director defended the move, saying it was designed to raise awreness of the games after it emerged that only 20 per cent of tickets for the Paralympics have been sold.
He said it was the idea of actress Cleo and added: “We knew it would be a punch in the gut, but we were there for a good cause, after all, almost no one bought tickets to see the Paralympic games.”
Cleo Pires also hit back after posting an image of Bruna Alexandre, captioned: “That's the picture in which inspire us to launch the campaign. This is Bruna Alexandre . As ambassador of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee I feel honoured to represent Bruninha in this campaign endorsed by the Paralympic Committee and the Brazilian Paralympic athletes.”
In a video posted on Instagram she said: “We lent our image to generate visibility. And that’s what we’re doing. My God.”
