Keeping the faith…

Posted by Lipglossiping On January - 11 - 2010

…if you had any to begin with.

So, Proctor & Gamble endured a wrist slap recently with their Olay Definity Eye Illuminator advert catching the attention of the Advertising Standards Agency in the UK.

The advert features the iconic Twiggy, now in her 60s…

It contained a testimonial from Twiggy stating: “Olay is my secret to brighter-looking eyes”.

Proctor & Gamble had already withdrawn the ad before it came under scrutiny, stating that they’d reviewed the post-production techniques that had been used in the creation of the ad and had found the “minor retouching” around the model’s eyes to be inconsistent with their policies which led them to replace the original ad.

I do hope the digital artist got bitch slapped by P&G, I mean seriously… that’s not even good retouching.  If you’re gonna exagerrate the effectiveness of your product, fine… but at least stay within some realms of reality.

Olay Definity’s latest Anti-Aging Night Cream Ad…

Wait!  There’s too much character in that face, back to the graphics tablet retoucher man and erase those wrinkles, pores… infact, remove all skin texture completely while you’re at it! *whip crack*

On the whole, I don’t have a problem with digital retouching. I feel that I’m enlightened enough to appreciate that a retouched image represents a distorted reality and I don’t mind looking at idealised photographs appreciating society’s desire for aesthetics.  I mean, let’s face it… Twiggy (as beautiful as she is) in her natural state is gonna sell as many eye-brightening products as I am diet pills – she’s 60 years old for chrissakes.  I don’t feel conned by a little airbrushing… but where’s the god-damn subtlety gone?

Just because we’re all used to seeing these altered images, ain’t no reason for you to get all complacent about it Mr. Digital Artist…

Use it to make models/celebrities look their best, not to transform them into freakish parodies of the media’s eternal quest for unattainable cartoonish perfection.

Ahhh… the lovely Demi, looking younger than Leila.

Hahhhahahaa!  Dude, Digital Retouching for Dummies… a book with your name on it.

As an advertising tool, I dig it… but 2009 saw it getting kinda out of control and almost self-referential in it’s absurdness.

What are your thoughts on airbrushing? Against it? A necessary evil?


32 Responses to “Keeping the faith…”

  1. liloo says:

    To be honest, I did not see the airbrushing on demi. I was too busy to see the jutting bones! (spelling?) She is wayyyyyyyyyyy too bony!!! I got used to air brushing. Worse, I got this camera which does the air brushing at the same time I am pointing and shooting. I am starting to con myself that I look like my youtube photos and now scared of meeting in people in real life because they will see that I look nothing like that in real life. It looks like that I got addicted to airbrushing. Sad! How did I end up like that, I don’t know :/

    • @Liloo – aye, you could slice bread on those shoulder blades huh?

      Oh no, don’t be silly!! I always make sure my photos are taken in the best light possible, and I overexpose them a little as it hides a multitude of sins! I’ve met lots of people who’ve only seen pics of me on my blog… they’re all recognised me (just about) and I haven’t overheard too many “‘cor she’s a right ugly git in person isn’t she?”. 😉 If you’re a blogger or on You Tube, it’s completely natural to want to look half decent if you’re going to post photographs of yourself isn’t it?

      There’s too many other things to worry about than that my love, chill my little French Fancie. x

  2. Rhamnousia says:

    LOL@younger than Leila.

    Digital retouching pisses me off because how are you supposed to know if products work or not? I know the main point of ads is to sell you products but they really shoot themselves in the foot, especially the mascara ads when they were forced to say (ha!) that the lashes had been retouched and the mascara was applied on fake lashes. OBVIOUSLY the mascara will look good if you’re putting it on fake lashes. It’s like saying this foundation is really good, but we’ve layered a tiny amount over a decent one.

    I think that’s part of the reason why people look more to blogs now than what people say in magazines because we don’t have the ability to photoshop our images and blind our readers with images which make them think “wow” because we show the product the way it works…

    Anyone who has seen Twiggy on TV knows that she has wrinkles which are expected on a woman of her age (duh) and making us think that they vanish totally with this cream is ridiculous because nobody will believe it.

    My favourite one is the Boots No7 one they do with the lady from Life on Mars (I think that’s the show). I thought she was about 40 and they’d made her look 30 but she’s only 30 something herself!

    I suppose the reason they do it is because there will always be one person who believes it..

    • @Rhamnousia – Yano, when I think about it… I pay absolutely no attention at all to how the lashes look in an ad. I mean, why would you? When a mascara ad comes on… I think the only thing that interests me is the shape of the brush. Perhaps that’s why the brushes are what they all focus on now?

  3. Grace London says:

    The Allure covers are the worst for this – quite often I don’t even recognise the celebrity in the picture, they are all airbrushed into one generic face. At least that isn’t trying to hawk stuff to you though.

    It’s no different than the ‘styled with lash inserts/hair extensions’ ads – it’s all deceitful.

    • @Grace London – Generic… I wonder if they have a set of parameters to adhere to? Eyes should be such and such cm apart…. waist should be a certain ratio to hips and if the ratio is out… fix it. Cookie cutter schlebs.

  4. DINKY London says:

    In my mind, airbrushing has gone too far now. I agree, use it to make models and celebs look better, get rid of any spots, bruises, excessive cellulite even. But dramatically changing body shapes, proportions and skin texture is just ludicrous. I just can’t get my head around why they would take it so far.

    I find Cosmopolitan to be especially bad for making their cover stars look like manga cartoons.

    • @DINKY London – I think that most people wouldn’t object to manipulations if they were kept ‘real’. Photographers have retouched their negatives for decades…. it’s not new… but as you say, this manga cartoon shit is stupid.

  5. Isa says:

    I passed to say hello:)
    Kiss Isa

  6. I think we’ve become much too dependent on airbrushing to stop doing it all together but it has gone a bit too far. When you start changing peoples’ eye colors and body shapes/sizes, you really aren’t doing photography anymore.

    I highly doubt it’s going to stop, but I think initially it was just cool that they could delete a smudge and now they want to delete anything that doesn’t look ‘perfect’.

    It’s kind of sad, really.

    • @Jeweled Thumb – Yes, yes!! Cartoon creations all round. Old Skool retouchers are probably turning in their… um…. well… I expect they’re shaking their heads at how silly and over the top it’s all become.

  7. ndoodles says:

    Eww that pic of Demi Moore looks horrifying. These old celebs need to face that they are older… They won’t look the same as before.

  8. Mimi says:

    While I don’t mind airbrushing, I think they should write on the pictures that they are retouched. Just like sigarettes. Yes, we all know that smoking kills, they still write it on the packet. Just do that to the pictures too, and i’m happy.

  9. Camilla says:

    I agree with the post above me. A disclaimer on the pic saying that it’s retouched would be suffice to me. I go agree that it makes us strive for perfection EVEN more than we already do in society.

  10. Shela says:

    Digital hip replacement. HAHAHAHAHA.

    xD

  11. Ondine says:

    …cause Demi’s such a lard arse without retouching..honestly, it’s ludicrous!
    I’m going to be an old fogey and say I think retouching is evil, I really do. All these photos of women with pore-free skin like marble, they’re just crazy. So much lovlier to see real beauty.

    • @Ondine – Yah, what a total blubber fest she is!

      Noooo, not evil! I don’t wanna look at Scarlet Johanssen’s blackheads… I don’t need to see them to know she farts just as loudly as I do after a plate of beans on toast.

  12. Lizzard says:

    actually i also read that they just popped her head on top of the runway model who originally walked this outfit down the catwalk! how funny is that? if you’re going to be retouched maybe you should wear age/body appropriate clothes demi? (i’m just bitter toward her anyway idk why either lol)

  13. Amy says:

    I think airbrushing is ok to cover a spot but when it is used to completely re-sculpt a person’s contours then what is the point? Why even bother taking photos of the celebs at all?Might as well just create the images from scratch on PCs.

  14. @Lizzard – Stop hating on Demi! Just remember her in Ghost, that untrenfy pageboy haircute and those girl next door looks! Those hands DO NOT look like hands of a woman over the age of 40 though… although, maybe they’ve just been ‘shopped too?

  15. @Amy – Yeah! Just get PIXAR in to create-a-celeb. Completely agree with you.

  16. Redtiger21 says:

    Well, i know that it’s bit of a vicious circle now with companies who want to actually sell things, and it’s not like just one company could stop using it alltogether, as I bet they wouldn’t sell as much. However, i think pics like that one of Demi are just unfair to the rest of us, as my hubby is likely to genuinely hope that i’ll look like that when i’m 40! Lol. I really really do think it should just be banned altogether, sorry if that sounds harsh, but that way ALL companies will have to sell their stuff without the use of it, and we get a real idea of how necessary/useful the product actually is, and also we won’t have to compare ourselves with horribly depressingly perfect pics of celebrities!

  17. Lillian says:

    Ha ha ha! That picture of Demi Moore is amazing! How did the airbrusher get away with it? Personally i’ve got no real problem with airbrushing as to me it’s always so obviously the pictures have been retouched that i don’t ever believe whatever they’re selling will really create that look, or the celecrities actually look like that.

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