Tish: Label ads with Photoshopped pics
Warning: Models in advertisements are not as perfect as they appear.
Public Advocate Letitia James is calling for New York City to slap a disclaimer on ads in public spaces that feature digitally altered models.
“Every day, New Yorkers are bombarded with images of unattainable beauty, created through digital alteration and spread throughout the city in ads in public spaces visible to millions of residents and visitors,” James wrote.
James called on Mayor de Blasio to have the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene set up a multiagency commission to organize a “citywide response” to ads featuring Photoshopped models — one that includes mandatory disclosures when those ads are placed in areas the city can regulate.
“Advertisements in public spaces, such as on buildings, billboards, and bus shelters, are particularly important because the daily commute to work and school is where most New Yorkers experience consistent and repetitive exposure to these images,” James wrote, with the average commute to work being 39 minutes and to high school 32 minutes each way.
The public advocate cited stats that say 80% of women feel insecure after seeing “images of women depicted in the media,” and that more than half of 13-year-olds are unhappy with their body — with that rising to 80% by 17 years old.
Some digitally altered images lighten the skin tone of women of color, she noted, and many change a model’s body shape and size — contributing to body dysmorphia, the obsession over perceived flaws.
There are 25,000 New York City adolescents with eating disorders, James said, and the median onset age is 12.
“Because this issue rises to the level of a public health problem, I believe that the city and (the Health Department) have the obligation and authority to take action — specifically, to require notice for digitally altered advertisements displayed in public areas and on other ads on property owned or controlled by the city,” James wrote.
Some companies have already made their own efforts in this area, James wrote — CVS, for example, is putting “beauty marks” on ads that haven’t been altered and has said it will phase out photo alterations by 2020.
American Eagle launched a campaign to use models who had not been airbrushed, dubbed “ArieReal.” And Israel began requiring notice when photographs were altered in 2012, she wrote.