UPDATE 10/14:
The Photo-shopped model, Filippa Hamilton, is alleging that Ralph Lauren fired her for being too fat.
UPDATE 10/9:
Ralph Lauren has issued an apology, the Daily Mail reports:
A spokesman for Ralph Lauren said last night: 'For over 42 years, we have built a brand based on quality and integrity.
'After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman's body.
'We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the calibre of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.'
10/6:
There's a great blogosphere-battle brewing between website Boing Boing and clothier Ralph Lauren over an advertisement featuring a Ralph Lauren-clad woman photoshopped to impossible thinness.
The gauntlet was thrown when a Boing Boing blogger reproduced the ad with this succinct critique: "Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis."
Instead of addressing this disturbing, and accurate criticism, Ralph Lauren responded by accusing Boing Boing of copyright infringement for reprinting the ad. Even though, As Boing Boing points out, this is "classic fair use: a reproduction 'for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting.'"
Happily, Boing Boing will not be cowed by Ralph Lauren's threat, as co-editor Cory Doctorow makes clear:
So, instead of responding to their legal threat by suppressing our criticism of their marketing images, we're gonna mock them. Hence this post.
Other strategies for battling Ralph Lauren Doctorow plans to employ include: reproducing the ad with the original criticism, publishing Ralph Lauren's legal threats and offering "nourishing soup and sandwiches to [their] models."
