So I was going through some blogs of my classmates, and I came across one that was pretty interesting by Anna, which would be found here. In it she was talking about how Photoshop is used in a ton of advertisements now, and it’s basically deceiving consumers into purchasing products that they think will make them appear the way the ad (which has clearly been photo-shopped) appears.
So for example, I searched up this ad with Jessica Alba in it. Now, I’m just using common sense here but I bet that most people would rather attend the party on the right, than the party on the right… disagreements? Probably not. The party on the right features a fun loving perfect looking Jessica Alba being surprised by the ‘accidental’ splash of water, some sort of fun looking drum in the foreground suggesting some live music is going on, and a top-notch dressed waiter carrying a tray of probably free alcoholic beverages all occurring on what looks like the sunniest day of the universe. Trust me… the line for this party would be around the block; as for the party on the left… line up… not so much. On the left, there is no cool music… just a mans arm, no accidental fun loving splash of water, we can’t even tell the man behind Alba is a waiter let alone with free alcoholic beverages, and, while still beautiful, Alba looks a little disheveled and her eyes are closed. This, ladies and gentlemen, represents the wonders of photoshop and marketing. Marketers can use editing techniques to instantaneously improve a potential customers idea of a product, without offering anything new. The way I see it, there’s good and bad things associated with this.
Starting with the bad. Consumers never really know what they’re getting. Does the concealer they’re buying really cover undereye circles? Who knows. It very well might, but it could easily have been photoshopped to appear as such. In this such case, consumers are being tricked into buying products that they believe work one way, when really they do not.
Now on the other hand… I think photoshop can be good. Say someone thinks they’re ugly, crying every night, and they now have really puffy eyes as a consequence. Feeling pretty down on themselves and their now unfortunate eyes, they read a magazine and in it they see an advertisement for an under eye roller that eliminates eye puffiness, as portrayed in the (photoshopped) image. They rush to the store, buy the eye roller and apply it, and while it doesn’t really do anything… they believe it has because hey, the ad showed it did, and they suddenly feel better about themselves and don’t think they’re ugly anymore. While I know this example is kind of out there, it gets my point across. Photoshopped ads let us believe what we want to believe, and can psychologically make us think a product is working wonders and is super beneficial to us when it really isn’t. Some people might think this is deceiving and wrong, but really is it? People buy the under eye roller wanting to fix their problem so they can feel more confident and better about the way they look, so if they get the same result in the end, without actually maybe fixing the problem in its entirety as promised, is it really that bad? I don’t think so.
Anyways team, gotta go so let me know what you think about photoshop too!
goooooodday.