I'm actually quite surprised to say that from a photography perspective, I love these!
When I stumbled across the headline "Madonna: Dolce & Gabbana's Spring 2010 ad campaign" on another website, my first thought was, "Oh Lord, no." As a personality, I strongly dislike Madonna, and her Louis Vuitton campaign was not only Photoshopped to death, it was generally dreadful (though this is something I've come to expect of LV campaigns at this point).
But seeing the photos, I was instantly swayed in favor of them. The airbrushing, though def. there, isn't as shamelessly obvious as in the LV campaign, nor have they tried to make excuses for it by shoving all kinds of other Photoshop filters down our throats.
Now, Madonna has never been a great actress, and age has taken its toll on her -- combine that with airbrushing and some of her photos will inevitably be a bit stiff. But there's something very lovable about her in these, and def. something ironic. Apart from the second picture -- in which her eyes look rather lopsided, while her expression doesn't really fit the situation -- I'm really feeling these. Photography-wise, anyway. I'm so happy to see Madonna's softened her image from those ridiculous Hard Candy days; it's really made her years younger and more approachable.
From an advertising perspective, however, I will admit I'm not sure this is the best representation of D&G. Like someone already pointed out here, the pics are rather ed-esque, and the clothing isn't that visibly displayed. But, on second thought, I find the ambiguity kind of charming, actually. Come to think of it, it's one of the reasons I've never liked LV as a label -- because I don't like having labels shoved in my face.
