Model hits out as ad for Virgin erases her hearing aid
A BALLET dancer has attacked health club Virgin Active’s ‘portrayal of the perfect life’ after her hearing aid was airbrushed out of an advertising image.
Simone Welgemoed, 27, who was born deaf, wore the cochlear implant to pose with other dancers for the advertising campaign.
But she was shocked to see the device – which sits above her right ear – had been Photoshopped out when it went live on the internet.
She contacted the firm, which was founded by Sir Richard Branson and has more than 250 gyms in ten countries including about 60 in the UK, leading to an apology and reinstatement of the original image.
‘It felt like somebody had just dropped a bucket of water on me,’ Miss Welgemoed said. ‘I couldn’t believe what I saw when my sister tagged me in the Virgin advertisement on Instagram.’
The campaign – which also appeared on the gym company’s Facebook page – features the tagline ‘Move the way your body was designed to’.
The image shows South Africanborn Miss Welgemoed with her head turned to the left – clearly showing the right side of her head where the implant should be.
In a furious Facebook post, she wrote: ‘They just went and without my permission decided to edit the cochlear implant out because why? It doesn’t fit with their pretty little picture of portraying the per- fect life that is Virgin Active?’ The message led one supporter to comment: ‘If that doesn’t scream “We only accept people who don’t look like they have a disability” then I don’t know what does.’ Miss Welgemoed added: ‘Virgin Active immediately responded... We had a discussion about what had happened and they were extremely apologetic. Virgin took off all the adverts and put the original one back on.’ The 2012 Miss I the boldly claim deaf, Deaf showcase to then South be an am who Africa ambassador I not I am?’ added: proud for to ‘If gin The Active gaffe using happened photos despite of her Vir- – with implant – in a previous ad. A Virgin Active spokesman said: ‘We 100 per cent accept that the action of Photoshopping the image is not in line with our values as a business, nor in keeping with the welcome we extend to everyone.’