Dr. Tony Vercillo

Link: http://www.ifmc-consultants.com/shop

As any good marketer will tell you, a tool like Photoshop is essential when it comes to creating a flawless brand. Editing software like Photoshop and In-Design are used for everything from a product’s packaging to ads, menus to banners; basically anything with an image.

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Most of the time, these products are used to create a manipulated image in the hopes that a particular ad will visually pop out at a consumer.

The Absolute Vodka campaign is a heavily reliant graphic design to get the bottle image manipulated into their ads. The use of color and creativity is prevalent in every print ad they produce.

This particular ad by Samsung takes a different approach, using the sense of muted color and open expanse to create an ad just as visually dynamic as the more colorful Absolute Vodka ad.

There is controversy regarding graphic design, though. The biggest being their ability to alter an image into something that many perceive to be too perfect or unrecognizable.

Can you tell me who this actress is?

The image is of actress Kristen Stewart of the Twilight movie series taken from a spread that was done earlier this year in Vogue. Forget the fact that the actress doesn’t look like herself, the person in this photo barely appears normal. Below is a side-by-side shot of this photo and a more natural shot of her. AS the New York Daily News states, “It's commonplace these days for celebrity photos to be airbrushed before they make it to print or on the web, but it's pointless if you risk losing a celeb's biggest star power: their ability to be easily recognized.”

As you can see, the editors over at Vogue were extremely heavy-handed in their use of Photoshop. Many feel that this ability of graphic designers is going too far. In fact, right now several ads have been banned in England due to what appears to be over “Photoshopped” images.

Both of these are seemingly innocuous compared to the image of Kristen Stewart, but the fact remains that while Photoshop can make create fantastic ads such as the ones created by Absolute Vodka and Samsung, they can also create a sense of “false advertising” in ads for products such as makeup. While I’m sure that to some degree Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington have great skin, first they employ the use of products and services such as those found at day spas to maximize their skin. This was then followed up by “Photoshopping” out any flaws they both should have at their age. To that end, it’s not the product the ad is based on, but all of the previous factors that get these women to look this good. While we all know this goes on – and it’s fine to an extent for magazine articles – it’s still false advertising when used in the context of selling a product that relies on appearance.

So what’s the moral of this story? As a marketer, you will come across these products on a practically daily basis. It’s up to you to determine the appropriateness of their use and what sort of affect it may have on the image you’re trying to create. After all, why go to all the trouble of creating a flawless ad if it’s only going to get yanked? Had to sell a product that way.