***************Making an Impact Danyel Smith

So coming on here today and seeing this as my last blog, (only before it's graded by my peers) I got kinda sad in a way, feeling like I hadn't made the impact that I wanted to. I felt that my cause was way too out there for this day an age, but at the same time felt that it was such an easy thing to ask for.
I find myself looking more at the magazines while standing in line at the grocery store and wondering how my peers and I would react to a magazine cover with a normal looking person on the cover or in an advertisement. Would I be more inclined to buy it because of its reality or would I inadvertently look past it because they weren't necessarily the "perfect" looking ones?
After this thought I then got upset on our jaded perception of what "perfect" is. This embedded image of perfection is what needs to be changed and I think the place to start with this is in our media....Magazines! I think a huge person responsible is the editor and chief of these publications. This is why I chose Vibe Magazine's Chief Editor Danyel Smith. Vibe is a very successful magazine that is looked up to by the others.
It starts there, with a brave individual who cares about the effects this has on women! Smith is that person and these fake individuals we look at every day need to be the unaltered individuals they started as. Photo retouching needs to be minimized and form there I think so much can change. The retouching of our lives will be minimized as well and all in all our world and our minds will become a healthier place!

Aha! Skinny Models Don't Sell More Products

-original article-

"Skinny Here's a study that's likely to get a lot of media attention (especially if female editors of a certain age have anything to say about it).

Research conducted at the University of Queensland indicates that ads featuring super-skinny models are no more effective at making women want to buy a product than similar ads featuring a healthy looking model.

Researcher Philippa Dietrichs (you go, girl!) created three ads for products targeted to women: lingerie, shampoo and a dress. Each ad was produced twice: once showing a photo of a healthy looking young woman and once showing the kind of skinny model who makes Kate Moss look like a bodybuilder.

Both sets of ads were then shown to 400 young women. Respondents showed no difference in their likelihood to buy the products. However, women 18 to 25 reported feeling better about themselves after viewing the ad with the healthier looking model.

Says Diedrichs, "Often people make the argument that thinness sells, and that's why they use slim models.

"But we can change the images we see and still sell products but also make people feel better about themselves."

OK, so maybe the science behind this study is a little shaky, since 400 women isn't a huge sample, and consumer intentions and self-image are hard to quantify. Still, the next time a client or casting agent suggests using a teenager who looks like she subsists on diet Coke and Trident, why not mention that famous Queensland study? "

Posted by Holly Hughes in Fashion on November 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) AddThis Social Bookmark Button

WE CAN ONLY HOPE THAT THIS IS THE CASE!

Naked Models

Miss Smith is up to it again.

CAN WE PUT SOME CLOTHES ON THESE COVER GIRLS?!!

*********My own addiction

So I was working on a project we have due in class where we have to put together a whole advertising campaign for a client. In this process I have had to create a fake website using photoshop and put together different advertisements, etc.

I have become really good with the program and have found it to be addicting. I have started putting different photos in there to see what I can do for pictures of myself and friends.
"Let me just black and white this one so you can't see that blemish."
"Ooh a distortion brush...let me just make that smaller... and that a little bigger..now my ass looks great!"

I stopped myself last night in the process and gave myself a little slap on the wrist. There are endless possibilities with this program and I can make myself into an entirely different person. But how embarrassing is that if I were to put up a retouched photo in my default and people are like "Who the Fuck is that? She doesn't look like that." That's how the models must feel!

So I now see that this is an addiction and I'm going to need a stronger drug to over power the damage already done!

*******How far will you allow Digital Retouching to go?

Digital retouching is something that I am trying to take a stand against. While looking through blogs I found that people still do not understand how bad this can be for how women view themselves. As a woman, I had not even thought about what men were thinking, but I am sure it is probably just as much or maybe even worse than us.

Should retouching to the extent that it is now be allowed by magazines? Am I the only one who sees the severity of the way our society is heading?

Kate Winslet: Vanity Fair

There has been some recent controversy with the December issue of Vanity Fair. Kate Winslet who is on the cover and has a spread within the magazine is looking better than ever!

There has been rumors going around that she has been retouched and there is no way that she could look like this. Kate has been stated to be furious at these allegations. With the Oscar winning star of Titanic being seen as over weight during that time she now thinks that "Once a fat kid, always a fat kid."

I am sure that these photos have been retouched to a degree, but this can be seen as a good thing. I am kind of on the fence about my feelings. First I was angry that a woman was always going to be questioned and thought to not look like they do or get recognition if they were naturally beautiful. But then I started thinking isn't it good that more people are understanding that things are being airbrushed excessively and are not reality! I think the good is out weighing the bad here!

*******Retouching/ Revamped/ Reworked...

..what ever the hell you want to call it.

Found this program while looking up the controversy about the new Kate Winslet Vanity Fair issue and the thoughts about her retouchings.

Oh please, what good advertising. This is just spreading the love of us altering ourselves to what none of us will EVER look like.

Sorry to break it to ya girls but we have pours on our face. When we turn our head surprisingly enough we get wrinkles in our neck as well. And don't want to break any dreams or anything, but no one's eyes are as painstakingly blue or green as they make them out to be in every advertisement out there!

Please look at this! Photoshop Retouching