Swedish retail giant Hennes and Mauritz, popularly marketed as H&M, has responded to allegations that it Photoshopped its latest campaign images in the Middle East to make it appear more modest, saying it was "nothing dramatic".
Pictures of model Gisele Bundchen, the face of the company's spring-summer collection, released recently show the Brazilian beauty wearing an extra layer of clothing in the regional campaign pictures and on local websites. Online fashion bloggers have since been actively discussing the digitally altered images, some saying it was a bad case of amateur Photoshop work. Most, however, have just been amused.
A spokesperson for H&M told tabloid! that while marketing is essentially similar in all markets, the decision to digitally add items was taken for "markets that can be stricter about how images can be shown".
"[This is] something we have done with other campaigns as well," the representative said.
H&M currently retails in 38 countries including the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon. Interestingly, the campaign pictures on the Lebanese website have not been altered. Kuwait-based master retailer Al Shaya is the company's regional partner.
