A Lighter Beyonce?

So everyone is up in arms about the latest L'Oreal hair dye advert which appears to show Beyonce Knowles with a much lighter skintone than normal. It's not the first time L'Oreal have caused controversy with their ads. The Advertising Standards Agency recently banned the L'Oreal Telescopic mascara advert for using false lashes on Penelope Cruz, after a viewer complained. 'Up to 60% longer lashes' wasn't the case and you'll now notice most mascara ads have a little note at the bottom to say "image contains lash inserts". So what can we actually believe? Well, I remember flicking through a magazine and noticing the new Glam Shine nude range starring Scarlett Johansson and noting that I'd seen this image before. The original Glam Shine shoot had just been given a virtual makeover and Scarlett appeared in exactly the same pose, wearing the same outfit albeit in slightly different colours. Even the beads around her neck had been colour changed.


To an unsuspecting customer reading that ad and seeing 'Scarlett is wearing shade...' it is extremely misleading. The colours are not real, but just a computer generated shade, so I doubt the gloss you buy will look like it did in the picture. Is it just the world we live in though, where even the least computer savvy person can photoshop pictures of themselves before uploading to blogs or social networking sites? It used to be the case that you could say 'wow, she has great skin', but now I know it's just been airbrushed. If you google 'faith hill photoshop' you'll see just how many nips and tucks the computer geeks will do to an image before it becomes front page of a magazine at your local newsagents.
It's important to remember that next time you look through a magazine it's unlikely that any of the pictures are real, untouched images, yes even those 'hasn't she piled on the pounds' ones. In a world where new technology and computer expertise are constantly changing it's doubtful we'll ever know what something really looks like until we try it or see for ourselves.

(images new.music.yahoo.com, kissandmakeup.tv)