Visual Ethics

Catherine Nissley

Introduction: Ethics Platform

Media’s ethics is constantly in question for the alteration of photos used to manipulate the audience. From newspapers to advertisements, digitally enhanced and misleading photos make readers question the accuracy and ethical standpoint of whatever publication.

The framework of this project is to look at the ethics behind altered photos. From the retouching of celebrities to the fusing of two photos to create one for the news, ethics always comes into question.

Covergirl AdIn 2011, a Covergirl advertisement, featuring Taylor

Swift, was pulled from the media due to its digital enhancement. The advertisement was for Covergirl NatureLuxe Mousse Mascara. The mascara claimed to add two times more volume than bare lashes while showing off Swift’s long and full eyelashes. However, the ad came with a very small disclaimer stating that the lashes were enhanced during post production. The National Advertising Division of the Council of Business Bureaus Claims sought after the company for digitally altering the photo and deceiving one into thinking that using NatureLuxe Mousse Mascara would lead to your lashes looking like they do in the ad.

From an ethical standpoint, the ad is the on the end of least unethical because the company did state the image was enhanced and the product was for a cosmetic. The use of enhancement to sell a product is still unethical though. When you see an advertisement, you assume the product is being used in the typical way it is presented. Consumers look at the photo and see long and full lashes and assume they will be able to achieve the same look from buying the product.

Women’s Health Cover

On this Women’s Health cover, actress Amber Heard is seen with a much flatter stomach than usual. Whether the angling or retouching was the cause, this ad is unethical. Women’s Health reinforces the ideas of flat stomachs toned bodies. The cover here is contradictory saying “sculpt sexy curves” yet their cover girl here is stick thin with no curves. Many made comments about Women’s Healthy thinking Heard didn’t need ribs or organs. This ad is deceiving because covers like this make women believe they can and will achieve a small frame by doing what the magazine says. There is also the issue of what message her small and possibly digitally slimmed down body is saying. It can be seen as unethical from the standpoint that her unrealistic body image is telling people this is how they should look and this is what beauty is. While the magazine denied altering Heard’s proportion, they were still questioned heavily for retouching this photograph.

However, it is not as unethical as other photos because of the nature of the magazine and the unknown truth about if the photo was retouched.

Basketball Photo

This photo was taken by news photographer Allan Detrich. This photo is unethical because the ball is photo shopped into the frame. News is considered to be a source that delivers the truth, so using altered photos like this is unethical. This creates a false idea of what happened during a game and increases the idea of how intense the game actually was.

While not as deceptive and unethical as an ad selling a product that’s not what it appears to be, the photo is still fake. The thing that makes it bad is that it wasn’t a photo for personal use, it appeared in a paper for the general public. The photo is more unethical than the Covergirl ad because that advertisement stated that the image had been altered and the Women’s Health cover may or may not have been altered.

Taco Bell AdOne topic of ethics in alteration and deception of photos that is not always touched on is ethics in food advertisements, especially fast food. Here is a Taco Bell taco from their advertisement and the actual taco that people receive. In reality, a Big Mac looks absolutely nothing like the advertisement. Not only is it not as aesthetically pleasing, it is also smaller and contains less meat.

This is unethical because people expect to get what they are seeing in the advertisements. If a steak house announces they have a 10 oz filet and it’s actually only 6 oz, it’s deceptive and a lie. Fast food gets away with this because of the low expectations people have in general for fast food but it still is unethical. Ethics in food advertisements do not compare to serious news ethics or advertisements that change skin tones because they are not affecting the views of our culture.

King Arthur AdFor the release of King Arthur in 2004, Keira Knightley was featured on movie posters with digitally enhanced breasts. The actress who is known for her small frame and very miniscule curves fell under scrutiny for an enhancement that took her from an A cup to a C cup. The main problem ethics wise in this photo is not that she is deceiving viewers of the movie about her breast size, but that the advertising team behind the campaign posters felt that it was necessary to give her more curves.

Young girls have always aspired to be like the actresses and the models they see in films and ads. When they see an actress being digitally enhanced like so, there is a question of what kind of message they are trying to send. Girls try to achieve what they see and they get a message that says you need larger breasts, that is what is sexy. Even though Knightley is beautiful and is a successful movie actress, she still needs to be enhanced. The message of standards of beauty are twisted here, making the photo unethical. The airbrushed image is unrealistic and did not include a disclaimer that it had been altered.

This is not the first time Knightley has fell under scrutiny for enhancements in ads, but more recently she has begun to refuse to have an altered breast size.

Olay AdIn this Olay advertisement for their product Olay Definity eye illuminator, former model Twiggy poses for the product. The claims of the ad say “reduces the look of wrinkles and dark circles for brighter, younger looking eyes.” and a quote from Twiggy saying “Olay is my secret to brighter-looking eyes.”

This advertisement fell under heavy scrutiny for its total airbrushing of Twiggy’s face. This photo becomes unethical because of how Olay is deceiving their consumers. Twiggy normally has many wrinkles but here she has flawless skin. The idea behind this is similar to the mascara ad that if you buy this product it will fix your skin to get the results that Twiggy did, yet hers are airbrushing done by technology.

Another issue here is message the advertisement sends about aging. Aging used to be a concept of beauty but in today’s society, growing old is something that is feared and ugly. Models are no longer used when they grow old and begin to show signs of aging. This ad reinforces that concept, which questions the ethics of it. People questioned, if former model Twiggy can’t be seen as beautiful with age, than how is the rest of the world supposed to feel?

This ad is more unethical than the King Arthur ad because of not only its reinforcing affects it has on society, but also the deception of how the product works.

H&M Ad

When taking a close look a clothing company H&M’s website, the models bodies look perfect and also perfectly similar. That’s because H&M does not use real models. All of the bodies in their advertisements are completely virtual and made using some computer technology. The only thing that’s real about these models is their heads. The company takes the model’s head and places it on the fake body.

Two ethical standpoints shout out of the use of virtual perfect bodies by H&M. To begin with, models are in shape and thin, but H&M using virtual bodies sends a message about body image. Why couldn’t the advertisements feature the model’s real bodies? Were they not considered small or in shape enough? This once again sends a message to the female consumer that this is the look they should achieve and yet they really can’t even because the body isn’t real. The ad also deceives the consumer is how the clothing looks on. Of course the clothing looks perfect, because it’s on a fake perfect body.

This photo is more unethical than the Twiggy advertisement because the bodies of women aren’t altered, they are completely fake and unobtainable virtual bodies that make it seem like real bodies are not good enough for modeling.

Bush Campaign AdDuring his 2004 campaign for presidency, George Bush was forced to pull an advertisement due to altering an

image. The photo here was from Bush’s speech at Fort Drum but what many noticed was the multiplied army in the audience where soldiers had been duplicated to fill the audience. This ad was unethical because of how it deceived the viewers of the size of the audience. While this wouldn’t be as big of a deal for a sporting event or something of that nature, it is a presidential campaign. People feel like they should be able to trust their president and whenever something comes out as deceptive from a candidate, their credibility and trust are immediately lowered.

Bush’s campaign coordinators claimed that they did multiply the audience but that they had no intention of deceiving the viewers. Even with no intention to do so, the photo is still unethical. The nature of being a political campaign is what makes it worse than some advertisements because Bush is trying to be presented in the best light and gain support. The word’s “WHATEVER IT TAKES” are in reference to bringing the troops home but the multiplied audience makes the statement ironic. It seems as though Bush will do whatever it takes to win, even if it means deception.

Loreal AdIn 2008, Beyonce was featured in a Loreal hair color advertisement. The ad created much controversy due to Beyonce’s skin appearing multiple shades lighter than its natural state. Many people felt betrayed by Beyonce for her altered skin tone, specifically within the black community. The message being sent here is taken that she is denying her heritage and she is making herself appear white. The affect this can have on young girls of color was voiced by many mothers.

Usually at a young age, children deal with issues involving their darker skin whether they be black, Asian, Indian, etc. So, when they see one of their favorite singers appearing ‘whitewashed’ this reinforces negative thoughts about their skin tone. They feel as though the culture that surrounds them does not accept them for who they are and they become self conscious. The detrimental affects of lightening the skin tone are far worse than breast enhancements or the lengthening of lashes. Children growing up and everyone should see the beauty in diversity and not feel as though their skin needs to be lightened to be beautiful and be accepted.

L.A. Times photographWhile many of my choices for photos have beenadvertisements, I believe this is the most unethical photobecause of it’s nature in news. News is supposed to informand be unbiased and definitely not mislead people. In thiscase, two photos were merged for an article about the IraqWar. The photographer Brian Wallsky snapped two photosat first. He merged One with the military man sayingsomething to the group with the gun pointed and one witha man and child to make it look like the gun is pointed atthe child and man and that the military man is yelling athim.

People were so intrigued by this image they shared itamong newspapers, only to find out the photos had beenmerged. This is completely unethical and tarnished thenewspaper’s reputation. The source where people get theirnews is expected to be highly credible. To some extent,airbrushing and retouching and merging of images in thingslike magazines are accepted. However, in a news story, thetruth is expected. This photo was manipulated to get a great story, yet it turned for the worst when people realizedit was not real. Ethics in news is extremely important andfaking photos for news tells a false story.

Sources• http://www.vladzilla.com/d/01%20Taco%20Bell%20-%20Taco%201.jpg• http://backseatcuddler.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Taylor-Swift-CoverGirl-mascara-ad-still.jpg• http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2009/07/01/twiggy550.jpg• http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/files/original/detrich2.jpg• http://www.shallownation.com/images/beyonce-2008-loreal-print-ad-campaign.jpg• http://blog.crackpassword.com/wp-content/uploads/image/walski-composite.jpg• http://www.zonezero.com/zz/images/stories/magazine/articles/fake.jpg• http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/images/39/2011/12/31a4334b134ca13897502734d510699f.jpg• http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.350448.1314449225!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/deriva

tives/landscape_635/image.jpg• http://www.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.981772!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscap

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