Fake Ad Mock-Ups Reveal Sad Truth About Photoshop in Advertising

December 16, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 8 Comments

Here is a news blast for you. Models you see in ads are probably shopped to death. Photographer and artist Anna Hill thought so too. And this thought drove her to create four mock up ads highlighting common uses of Photoshop in the advertizing industry.

Fake Ads Mock-Ups Reveal Sad Truth About Photoshop in Advertising

Anna was pretty critical about the extensive use of “beauty enhancement” to the point where she suggested that beauty ads are actually advertizing the capabilities of Photoshop rather than actual products. Anna shared her motivation with Gizmodo:

“I think the main concept is something I’d noticed for a long time. The typical makeup ad or display in a store is a closeup on a girl’s face, who has absolutely no pores and an artificial glossy finish, which made me think they may as well be advertising Photoshop. Makeup can do a lot, but it can’t make you look like that.”#

Here is where it gets really awesome, Anna posed as a real live example of how the advertizing industry completely changes the appearance of models: From legs lengthening “surgery”, through youth regeneration to skin pores removal.

Fake Ads Mock-Ups Reveal Sad Truth About Photoshop in Advertising

[Anna Hill via Gizmodo]

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is the Founder and Editor in Chief of DIYPhotography, he is also a photographer, a relentless entrepreneur, a prolific inventor and a dad, not necessarily in that order

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Stephen C Miller

It’d be sad if this were the truth but this fake campaign is clearly before makeup, foundation, combed hair or lipstick.
The longer limbs and horrible sad photoshop of the arms and stomach can all be solved with a better photographer behind the camera. Horrible presentation.
- Geoff
  
  I completely agree. The before pictures are deliberately poorly taken in order to make the point, which is a bit deceiving.
fart

Really? Ads are photoshopped? You don’t say! I dont know if I am more upset with this girl for making this poorly executed crap or this website for posting it.
Jim Johnson

Careful, gentlemen, someone might mistake your misplaced anger and hostility in the comments section for something else.

Unless it actually is something else.
stollface

I do like the Photoshop applicator. lol. Not everything is photoshop’d and when Photoshop isn’t used it is when the photographer knows how to make a photo pop. You will always need touchups done but I don’t think as much as this poster did. Really over the top. But saying that; has the truth ever help sell anything.
Chris Hutcheson

A tad heavy, but I’ve seen more than a few that look as overdone as this in my travels….
Otara

The article points out that a lot of people dont really know, and even those that do can still register the images as ‘real’, even though we know it intellectually, and it still has an impact on us.

To give an example I did dancing for years, left, was a normal weight, met some old friends who used to look ‘OK’ size wise, and now they looked like majorly thin twigs. They hadnt actually changed much, it was my perception of what a ‘twig’ was that had, it was a very wierd thing to experience visually. So I know what she means with that going back to normal thing, from the reverse.
rodrigounda

guys, it is called sarcasm… 😉