“Baby images airbrushed by magazines to make them more perfect”

File under: Duh! Should we be surprised?

From today’s Telegraph (UK):

Babies’ eye colour, skin tone – and even the fat creases on their arms – are altered before the images are put on glossy magazine front covers.

Politicians and industry experts described the practice as “shocking” and said it would put further pressure on parents who wanted their babies to be perfect.

Full article here.

Some Positivity: Girls Inc. “Tell Me”

Whenever I discuss the issues of beauty, self image and the media – in a critical way – people instantly mention the Dove campaign for “Real Beauty,” invariably saying, “Wasn’t that wonderful, for a change?” Yes. And no. Because (a) it was heavily retouched in Photoshop by Pascal Dangin (b) Dove is owned by Unilever, which sells Slim Fast and the #1 skin whitening cream brand in Asia (c) the ultimate purpose of the ad is to sell a product – and smartly so, by differentiating the brand with the illusion that what they care about is real beauty (their sales shot up 700% in the UK with the – albeit retouched – Pro Age campaign showing older women). For more on Dove’s corporate hypocrisy, check out this earlier post: “An Egregious Example of Corporate Hypocrisy: Dove’s “Real Beauty” Campaign.”

Indeed, if you examine it closely, a Chomsky quote would be really appropriate regarding Dove’s “Real Beauty” (Photoshopped) campaign:

One of the ways you control what people think is by creating the illusion that there’s a debate going on, but making sure that that debate stays within very narrow margins.

Now, criticism aside, once every blue moon a campaign comes out carrying  a positive, empowering message to women with no strings attached. No products to sell. No corporate image to make-over. Just pure, undiluted positivity. It’s the case of the award winning PSAs by the wonderful organization Girls Inc.

Their YouTube page does not allow embedding the video on external sites, so click on the link below to open up the video in a new window:

Girls Inc. “Tell Me”

The first time I watched it, it almost made me choke up…

Share this video with your friends and family!

Annals of Deception: Image Retouching in Music Videos

Check this out: http://is.gd/fGoi

Advertising: “Campari’s Calendars: Fairy Tales & Tales Of Force”

Remember Jessica Alba’s heavily Photoshopped Campari ads? There are more where that came from, and Eva Mendes and Salma Hayek are in some bizarre scenarios.

via Jezebel.

Dept. of Manipulation: Ooops!

via Jezebel & Photoshop Disasters:

In the September 2008 issue of an international edition of Marie Claire, some of the staff at the top of the masthead — creative director, photo director, deputy editor, associate editor, acting features director — posed for a photo in what looks like the office conference room. They all look fresh-faced and wrinkle-free. However, as Photoshop Disasters points out, the reflection in the conference room table suggests a different reality.

Dept. of Manipulation: Jennifer Aniston Admits GQ Cover was “Photoshopped”

From US Magazine:

 

Yoga isn’t the only reason Jennifer Aniston looks good naked!

The actress made a confession about her sexy GQ cover when she appeared on The View on Wednesday.

“What happened to the girl next door from Friends?”Barbara Walters asked, holding up the January issue, where Aniston appears wearing only a tie.

“She’s there! Photoshopped!” Aniston, 39, replied.

 

Jessica Alba – Airbrushed

From: The Daily Mail (UK)

Most women would be only too happy have Jessica Alba’s stunning figure.

Just five months after the birth of her first child, the 27-year-old actress showed off her body in a series of plunging beachwear and skimpy tops for a new calender.

But those feeling envious can now breath a sigh of relief … because even Jessica’s curves were airbrushed before her latest pictures were released.

Full article here: The Daily Mail (UK)

Outrageously Deceptive Ads: VICHY Normaderm Cream

My first thought upon seeing this ad in the back of a French magazine: “You have to be kidding me!”

This is obviously a BEFORE-and-AFTER Photoshop photo, not an illustration of BEFORE-and-AFTER “I have used Vichy Normaderm“. Unless the cream erases your skin pores, that is.

An Egregious Example of Corporate Hypocrisy: Dove’s “Real Beauty” Campaign

About three months ago, upon completing the first phase of research for my film, I held two slideshow presentations in front of an audience of friends, acquaintances, and a few people working in the TV/movie industry in Paris. Very much in the style of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”

At the heart of the presentation is the assertion that the obsession over the pursuit of the perfect female body is one of the integral parts of the capitalist system. If women were suddenly content over their appearance – accepting their body size, skin tone & color, wrinkles, graying hair, and the size and shape of their breasts, amongst other things – entire markets would crumble. Indeed, worldwide sales for cosmetic products, dieting products, and cosmetic surgery totaled almost 500 billion dollars in 2006. Thus the saturation of images on advertising and mass media, pushing forward images of idealized, surgically-enhanced beauty that are impossible to achieve.

Well, during my presentations, I would invariably get asked about the company Dove and its campaign for “Real Beauty.” Wasn’t that refreshingly positive? People would ask. It is a question that comes up every time I talk about my project. The short answer? Yes and no.

The people at Dove have actually exploited a void in the marketplace. By introducing so-called women with “real” bodies, they distinguished themselves from their competitors. After the introduction of their “Real Beauty” campaign, according to the New Yorker, sales of Dove products shot up 700% in the U.K.

Why Dove’s “Real Beauty” is the quintessential example of corporate hypocrisy:

#1 – Its parent company is Unilever, maker of Lynx and Fair & Lovely

If the “Real Beauty” campaign criticized the advertising and media industry with ads like this and especially this one, another Unilever brand managed to reduce women to mere sexual objects/slaves through ads for its other brand Lynx: “Jet Set” is the perfect example. Indeed, the entire mantra of Lynx ads is to be so outrageous and sexist, regarding the effects of the deodorants on women, that the ads are often banned, achieving cult-like status.

Unilever is also the maker, in India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, of skin whitening creams for women and men. The commercials, running on borderline racist themes, always feature unhappy, socially rejected women and men with a dark skin color, who are magically transformed into popular people after using the “Fair and Lovely,” skin-whitening cream. Seducing the objects of their affection and obtaining prestigious jobs. Examples here and here.

#2 – The people behind the ads are industry bigwigs, who are otherwise working as “Illusionists” on other campaigns

The ad company Ogilvy and Mather, Annie Leibovitz, and photo retouching wiz Pascal Dangin are behind the ads (Leibovitz and Dangin took care of the print campaign).

#3 – The print ads are Photoshopped

In a New Yorker profile of the world’s highest paid, most sough after photo retoucher Pascal Dangin from the May 12th 2008 issue, writer Lauren Collins pressed him about the Dove campaigns:

I mentioned the Dove ad campaign that proudly featured lumpier-than-usual “real women” in their undergarments. It turned out that it was a Dangin job. “Do you know how much retouching was on that?” he asked. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”