Vogue Brazil turns models into amputees to promote Paralympics

The campaign was apparently created to promote the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The actors’ bodies were altered to look like those of two Brazilian Paralympians, table tennis player Bruna Alexandre and sitting volleyball player Renato Leite.

But instead of doing a photo shoot with the two of them, the magazine staged a shoot with two people who aren’t disabled – actors Cleo Pires and Paulo Vilhena – and then digitally augmented them to have the same disabilities that Leite and Alexandre have. But Vogue Brasil has not gotten off to a great start, by posting a tone deaf image to its Instagram account in which the limbs of two Brazilian Paralympians have been grafted onto two celebrities with Photoshop.

In a statement to Buzzfeed Brazil, Vogue defended the campaign, saying it was an initiative of the an external agency and they supported “any initiative than encourages attendance” at the Paralympics.

Disabled athletes and models have told Newsbeat how disappointed they are with Brazilian Vogue’s publicity campaign for the 2016 Paralympics.

One has lost an arm and the other has been given a prosthetic leg.

A Vogue campaign has come under fire for photoshopping images of able-bodied actors for a Rio 2016 Paralymics feature.

Speaking to Newsbeat she says: “The image looks lovely but what were Brazilian Vogue thinking, it’s completely and utterly wrong”. The two professional models were invited to join both the Paralympic committee and front this new campaign, which is called We Are All [Paralympics]. “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”, she said. “Even though there are models with those very disabilities @vogue could’ve featured, they’ve modeled together too”, one person wrote.

‘Vogue respects the opinions of readers who disagreed with the campaign format, ‘ said a representative from Vogue Brazil, ‘but reiterates its commitment to promote the importance of Paralympic games.

‘We will continue to support all of the Paralympic committee initiatives that can increase the number of attendees at the Paralympic games’.