Before and After

I saw an ad tonight on a local newspaper's website in which the woman in this picture...


...magically transformed into this picture.


What struck me was not that the results were so dramatic. After all, it does say right on the ad that the results are not typical and that the imagery is simulated. That's fine.

What startled me so much was the amount of fake-baking and hair-dying this 80+ year old woman had obviously endured to create such a ghastly combination of dried leather and haystack hair. In fact, it almost looks like the old lady had the tan sprayed onto her face leaving two very distinct stripes down the middle of her cheek. She certainly doesn't look happy, does she? She looks worried. "Oh, dear... the grandkids said this fake tanning thing was nice, but it sure does sting. I think they sprayed my glass eye!" (Notice her darker, more obtrusive, glass eye on the right side of her face. I'd bet money she lost that thing in an epic bar fight.)

It's always interesting, and often comical, to me to see how a picture of a young woman is transformed into a wrinkly geriatric via the magic of photoshop. Why this particular artist felt like he had to give the old lady a tan is beyond my comprehension. Wouldn't she look older with more pale, translucent skin? Oh, and why remove every trace of wrinkles on the after picture? Said lack of even the natural wrinkles makes this woman's face look puffy - as if her face is a balloon that is just a tad bit overfilled.

Oh, the exaggerated joys of advertising.

-Barry