The campaign, dubbed “We Are All Special Olympics” is a collaboration with Paralympic ambassadors Cleo Pires and Paulo Vilhena, both actors. In the photo, Cleo’s arm was Photoshopped out and Paulo was given a prosthetic leg.
The photo is meant to resemble the real-life disabilities of two Paralympic athletes—Brazilian table tennis player Bruninha Alexandre, who had her right arm amputated when she was just 3 months old, and volleyball player Renato Leite, who has a prosthetic leg, according to Mashable.
Pessoal, Venho esclarecer que estou super orgulhosa de fazer parte desta campanha que a revista #Vogue começou a divulgar as primeiras imagens desse lindo trabalho. Nossos Embaixadores Paralímpicos Cleo Pires e Paulo Vilhena, nos ajudaram a intensificar e a propagar a campanha com intuito de gerar visibilidade ao Movimento Paralímpico e convocar a torcida brasileira para marcar presença nos Jogos Paralímpicos Rio 2016. Gostaria, de enfatizar que #SomosTodosIguais e por isso a Cleo Pires me representa. Nos próximos dias, vocês terão acesso completo da campanha. #VemComAGenteBrasil e espero contar com toda a torcida brasileira nas arenas é assim torcendo, vibrando, cantando e comemorando conosco! #CarregoNoPeito o #CoraçãoParalímpico. @cleopires_oficial @vilhenap @ocpboficial
A photo posted by Bruninha Alexandre (@bruninha_alexandre) on Aug 24, 2016 at 5:51pm PDT
Many questioned why the magazine didn’t just just photograph Bruninha and Renato—after all, Instagram photos show that they were at the shoot.
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Naturally, people are pissed—though Vogue Brazil claims they were just trying to raise the profile of the Games. “For those who do not know, the idea of the campaign came from the Paralympic ambassador, Cleo Pires,” said Vogue Brazil’s art director Clayton Carneiro in a statement on the magazine’s website. “We knew it would be a punch in the stomach, but we were there for a good cause, after all, almost no one bought tickets to see the Paralympic Games.”
Err…OK? You can check out real Paralympians in action starting September 7.