Should Photoshopping Ads be regulated?

This is an interesting article about what they are trying to do in the UK to stop the extreme use of photoshop in the media. Almost everything we look at in magazines and advertisements has probably been photoshopped to some degree. Sometimes, it makes sense, but at other times it can be extremely deceptive.

A friend of mine recently got married and mentioned that for just that one day she wished she didn't have the tattoo on her shoulder that showed up in all the pictures. So should she photoshop it out? It makes it a bit untruthful since she did actually have the tattoo on that day and did not even try to cover it up. Anyone who was there would probably be able to recall that if they had noticed it. But if they went back to look at pictures, which had been photoshopped, it wouldn't be there. I can't see how it actually hurts as long as you are truthful about it and readily admit why you did it.

In the media, on the other hand, we never get to talk to the individuals about the choices they made and why. Perhaps a notice that photoshop has been used and for what purpose at the bottom of the picture would help keep people accountable. Either that, or as consumers we just need to assume that everything has been photoshopped and nothing is the whole truth.

Food Advertising - Making Food Look Sexy

The equivalant of a makeup artist for the stars is a food stylist. I always assumed someone must take the time to make the food on advertisements look fabulous, but I never understood the lengths that a food stylist would go to in order to make the food LOOK so mouth-wateringly delicious. The irony is that the food that looks so good on the screen is inedible. So it makes us want to eat the item we think we are looking at, but what we are actually seeing is an inedible form of the item. It's pretty crazy to think that my food cravings are being stimulated by an uncooked hamburger full of toothpicks and straight pins, and possibly some glue! Ugh. That's much less appetizing than it looks.

To see some examples of how food stylists manipulate the food for advertisements, click here.

Product Placement on TV

Product placement seems to be all the rage lately. Sometimes it bothers me, like when they stop in the middle of The Biggest Loser to talk to each other about the joys of Ziploc products. Other times, I don't mind, knowing that everybody just wants to make a little money and this is the price we pay for living in a capitalistic society.

What gets to me though, is the thought that these aren't the little guys making a little bit of money off some product placement. Nope. A lot of these products belong to the same big companies and that company is just raking in the profits. If companies use all their time promoting their own parent/sister company's products, where are the small companies going to get their advertising placed? In the very worst, cheapest, least-watched slots, that's where.

And then again on the other hand, some of this stuff is just plain funny! The New York Times article gave a great list of examples of both good and bad (horrible, really) product placement. For instance, this one here, just...just...I don't even know what to say about it. Just watch it.