Outrage over ‘bald’ celebs campaign

Cape Town. 20.9.14. Images of well-known celebriies such as Lee-Ann Libenberg and others whose hair have been digitally "shaved " in aid of cancer support has caused an outcry from the public. Picture Ian Landsberg

Cape Town. 20.9.14. Images of well-known celebriies such as Lee-Ann Libenberg and others whose hair have been digitally "shaved " in aid of cancer support has caused an outcry from the public. Picture Ian Landsberg

Published Oct 21, 2014

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Cape Town - The Cancer Association of SA(Cansa) was surprised on Monday when some cancer survivors reacted with outrage over a YOU Magazine campaign featuring celebrities pretending to be bald.

The front cover of the magazine featured model Lee-Ann Liebenberg with a bald head – but instead of shaving off her hair in support of chemotherapy patients, it had simply been photoshopped out by the magazine’s retouchers.

Cansa’s marketing and communication head Lucy Balona said the magazine had consulted Cansa’s head of health about the campaign. Having partnered with Marie Claire in a similar awareness campaign featuring celebrities, Cansa did not have any reservations about the YOU shoot.

“It was done by a previous magazine and we had such a positive response,” Balona said. “So we were surprised (by the negative reaction).”

Five other celebrities with connections to cancer survivors took part – Shashi Naidoo, Poppy Ntshongwana, Zakeeya Patel, Elma Postma and LeAnne Dlamini.

YOU Magazine’s Facebook page was flooded with comments.

Jacky Groenewald posted: “Hang your head in shame YOU! I am a cancer survivor and this is a disgrace! Why didn’t you have the guts to photoshop their eyebrows and eyelashes off as well? When you have chemo you lose it all! Cancer is not beautiful – it is ugly and tragic!”

Raymond Strodl said: “As a cancer survivor I find this offensive. It is not a joke and cancer cannot be photoshopped away.”

Meanwhile, Nico Smit urged other YOU readers to e-mail the press ombudsman and lay a complaint. “It is unacceptable to publish fake photos of so-called celebrities pretending to support cancer awareness,” he posted.

Balona said Cansa had received nearly entirely positive feedback from its survivor associates, but the offence taken by others must be respected. “We work a lot with cancer survivors. We didn’t realise they would be upset by it, and we apologise for any offence caused.”

YOU editor Linda Pietersen was not available on Monday night, but supplied a press release, which is also published on Cansa’s website.

“For many celebrities, their hair is an integral part of their public image. So we love that so many have been brave enough to have our picture retouchers ‘shave’ off their hair. We often cover heartbreaking news stories related to cancer, but we wanted to do something that would make everyone sit up and take note. And our instinct to involve celebs was not wrong.”

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Cape Argus

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