Newsletter
Warning: That Could Be a Fake Photo You're Drooling Over
Date: 09/28/2009By Len Galvin
September 28, 2009 -- Every image of human models used in advertising goes through some Photoshop touchup.
Are fake photos damaging people's psyches?
The French government thinks so. It wants to put warning labels on advertising images in which lips have been plumped, breasts enlarged, necks lengthened, eyes widened, and reality generally enhanced for effect.
They're particularly worried about teens who could develop unhealthy body image obsessions. The thinking is that it can't be healthy to cause teens to want to look like someone with features that don't actually exist in nature.
The solution? A warning on every advertisement, press photo, art photograph, or piece of product packaging containing a digitally manipulated picture of a person reading, "Photograph retouched to modify the physical appearance of a person." Hefty fines are in store for advertisers who fail to include the warning.
French concern for the healthy body images of their youth is not one of the categories that was used to determine France's #1 position in International Living's 2009 Quality of Life Index, but the French medical system in general definitely was. No word yet on whether therapy to correct skewed body image will be included in France's national health care plan if the advertising warning legislation is passed.