Fotoshop: The Next Revolution in Beauty Goes Viral

Photography News

Photoshop users and fashion industry critics have been getting a kick out of this recent viral video. In only five days, it has collected over 2.4 M views on Vimeo and close to another 2 M on YouTube. The tagline is:

“This commercial isn’t real, neither are society’s standards of beauty.”

Northern California filmmaker Jesse Rosten regularly directs imaginative commercials professionally. He uses his talents here to reveal the trend to create unrealistic advertising in the beauty industry. Photographers and designers, who are very aware of the techniques, will laugh at the packaging of the various photo retouch effects commonly used to transform images.The music, editing, lighting, narration and other elements imitate a real commercial, including amusing motion graphics and marketing jargon.

Underlying the parody is a serious message that has been in the news, as eating disorders affect young women trying to emulate the impossibly thin models in advertising, and some questionable photo retouching practices have been identified. The fashion industry may be prevented from deceptive practices, with governments in Norway, England and France considering taking action to legislate warning labels on altered images, as reported in the Washington Post.

“There is only one way to look like a real cover girl . . . maybe she’s born with it — Uh, I’m pretty sure it’s fotoshop!”

A behind the scenes look at the making of the fotoshop video is also worth watching because was created using the same techniques as professional commercials:

The large, reflective umbrella with hand wired 1,000 watt halogen light bulb clip comes with a warning not to try this at home. Looks like a RED camera was used and some techniques with backdrops and fans to create wind are shown. The crew and make-up artists got into the spirit of the shoot with some funny comments and Jesse Rosten appears briefly.