Latest Developments
Twiggy's ad for Oil of Olay was banned in the UK for heavy retouching which made the 60-year-old model look much younger. The ad was for an anti-aging product and hundreds of protests were forwarded to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority which judged the ad misleading, according to 9 News.
Ralph Lauren also drew recent criticism for an ad which depicted a photoshopped model with a head wider than her waist.
It's not only advertisers that use photoshopped women to depict unrealistic images: Self magazine published slimmed-down pics of singer Kelly Clarkson for an article about total body confidence, according to the NY Times.
Background
Photo retouching as we know it has been around since the 1980s when computers were used for digital retouching. Famous instances of photo retouching in journalism include the Newsweek cover that depicted Martha Stewart being released from prison: her head was put on a slimmer body to make it appear she had lost weight in prison.
Photojournalists follow a code of conduct in the U.S. for the National Press Photographers Association which calls for journalists to not publish altered photos that are misleading.
Photo retouching is widely used and accepted in all forms of print editorial and adveritising. However, growing unease with excessively misleading fashion and beauty photos -- and the detriment it causes to women's body image -- has led to talks of having altered images labeled as having been manipulated.
