It has long been known that advertisers will “photoshop” (slang for editing photos to touch up or airbrush out imperfections) photos to make the subject more appealing. But many bear pointed out that this subtle manipulation often goes too far. Young people,girls in specific, are bombarded with images of how they are supposed to look, or contributing to many social and health problems as a result.
The American National Advertising Division (the US advertising industry’s self-regulating watchdog) for example,recently moved to ban the misleading use of photoshopping and enhanced post-production in cosmetics adverts as it could be too misleading. In the UK some adverts bear been banned because the effects of airbrushing has resulted in very misleading cosmetic adverts. France has even considered legislation to explicitly identify retouched images.
Some will claim it is up to parents to teach their children how to recognize these things, but parents cannot often win against an army of professional psychologists, and marketers and others all focused on pushing their own images onto children,when studies also say that children are not old-fashioned enough tell the difference between commercial and other content.
This page has been updated to add a section approximately this issue with further links, videos and examples.
Read full article: Media and Advertising
Source: globalissues.org