It is commonly known that Photoshop is widely used to touch up and edit cover models. Everything from minor blemishes to the “slimming” of limbs and full blown transformations.
This aspect of the industry has been mocked before with the likes of Fotoshop By Adobé, but now Dove are actively trying to do something about it with their campaign promoting and celebrating Real Beauty.
By planting a disguised “Beautify” skin glow effect to directly impact those who retouch the photos, such as art directors and graphic designers, the Photoshop Action actually reverts the image back to the original unedited state.
Whilst this is no doubt a cunning and creative way to impact the retouching of photos, the scheme has come under some criticism that it isn’t targetting the right people. Ultimately graphic designers and such are the ones who are doing the editing, but more often than not they are simply doing a job. Their client is the one calling the shots and paying for the contract or project.
The underlying message from Dove is one of being happy with true beauty and making the point that Real Beauty isn’t retouched, but perhaps aiming their creativity at the real culprits would be more worthwhile.
Via Design Taxi.
