Comments on: Makeup Ads Banned in UK for Too Much Photoshop

By: SHAWN HOOPER

SHAWN HOOPER — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:19:00 +0000

It’s the same concept as putting marbles in the bottom of soup bowls. The product IS THERE…just “enhanced”. It’s this “enhancement” that is considered “Deceptive” by law people.
NOW, conversely, if this is advertising your PHOTO BUSINESS…well, that’s a different story.

By: Joseph T.

Joseph T. — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 04:23:00 +0000

Nowhere in the ad does it claim to make anyone look like the photograph. It advertises improvement, but to no specific level, which is clearly listed on the product’s disclaimers. I understand that the British government is somewhat dictatorial in comparison to the U.S., but this is going a bit too far, even for a pseudo-free nation. What is the next step? Banning ALL food ads and pictures? Banning ALL tourism photos used to entice visitors that use ND or circ polarizer filters because they intensify a drab place you wouldn’t actually want to visit into an image of incredible beauty, and therefore again false advertisement?

If the British government is going to act like a dictatorship, then they should stop their own hypocritical alterations of ALL publicity shots of the royal family. Talk about photoshop…just look at the official shots of the big wedding!!!

By: Michael Adkins

Michael Adkins — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:25:00 +0000

The illusion of advertising is always just that, an illusion. Take food photography, when have you ever purchased a MacDonald’s hamburger that looks like the ad. It is the job of the photographer and digital artist to help the client sell the illusion. To stop the viewer and say wow, I want that. We all strive for perfection but rarely get it. So would you really want to purchase makeup if the photo shows a pimple faced model with pits in her skin? We know the models are made up, digitally enhanced, and even made to not look real. The advertiser is not trying to hide that fact but to say the product will help. We do not need to start requiring ads to all have disclaimers like, if you use our product you most likely will not look like Julia Roberts and by the way this ad shows digitally enhanced skin. We the consumer really know that. Give the consumer a little credit of some intelligence. After all most all professional portrait studios now digitally enhance there clients photos and none of my clents say “Hay, it does not look like me, I want the mole back”.

By: Gus Munoz

Gus Munoz — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:54:00 +0000

This is the unfortunates and pressures that our children must face, and have to live with. As a photographer, I don’t photoshop. I edit. But keep it real.

By: Simon Lynch

Simon Lynch — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:59:00 +0000

Most impressively, Dove manages to stay profitable while telling women around the world to love their own body and not try to change it.

Proofs, that you don’t have to sell lies and alternate realities to make money.

By: Simon Lynch

Simon Lynch — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:59:00 +0000

Most impressively, Dove manages to stay profitable while telling women around the world to love their own body and not try to change it.

Proofs, that you don’t have to sell lies and alternate realities to make money.

By: Simon Lynch

Simon Lynch — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:56:00 +0000

You are missing the point that the alterration you mention, are REAL in a sens that one person CAN look like this with surgery, clothes etc…

No one can walk around with a digitaly enhanced face. Apples and oranges.

By: Simon Lynch

Simon Lynch — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:56:00 +0000

You are missing the point that the alterration you mention, are REAL in a sens that one person CAN look like this with surgery, clothes etc…

No one can walk around with a digitaly enhanced face. Apples and oranges.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 23:38:00 +0000

I normally don’t agree with many of the recent infringements of many government authorities; but, I do have to agree with the Advertising Standards Authority on this one.

Retouching, in my opinion has crossed a line, and is having an adverse affect on the little girls, young women, and women in our society. Women, young women, girls are being bombarded with images of flawlessness/perfection, which is impossible for them to achieve; yet, they try to achieve it. Dove has a campaign which addresses this issue and you can find the video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Related to the above video and the same campaign is this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I&feature=related

I have a little girl and despite any imperfections she may have, which I am oblivious to, she is beautiful no matter what.

By: Matt Skalski

Matt Skalski — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:11:00 +0000

The key difference you are missing here is that Makeup, unlike the other things you mentioned, exists to provide a false representation of one’s skin, so if you apply the product to a model and then retouch the image, you are unrealistically representing the effectiveness of the product (ie it’s ability to make your skin look better than it actually is).