Ralph Lauren Threatens Photoshop Critics

You can never be too thin or too rich, right?

I totally agree with the second half of the statement you can never be too rich, there's no such thing. Too thin? Yip. You can definitely be too thin.

Not so for Ralph Lauren. They recently found themselves in a spot of hot water over some dodgily photoshopped images. They should have known something wasn't right when their model had a head bigger than her pelvis and a neck the size of a tooth pic. It was published anyway.

The Ralph Lauren marketing team didn't take the criticism well. Citing an "image infringement", they issued a "take down" notice to their detractors, in this case the PhotoshopDisasters blog, who bowed to legal pressure. Others weren't so accommodating and the take down order was savagely mocked, along with the picture in question, on sites all over the web. 

Copyright law doesn't actually let you threaten the critics that point out your mistakes which begs the question, "Why so sensitive Ralph Lauren"

Photoshop mistakes have been going on for as long as Photoshop itself. The latest picture is strikingly similar to the Brad Pitt Edwin Jeans ad where the male half of Brangelina's head and shoulders were photoshopped totally out of proportion to his hips. Advertising and fashion thrive on impossible ideals, and Photoshop is part of that, I get that, but at times it's taken to ridiculous extremes.

The real issue here is how companies handle criticism. After a video of an employee vandalising one of their stores was posted on YouTube, ASDA fought back with a video of their own. Existing staff members called for the perpetrator to be punished and the company were praised for their quick-witted PR campaign.

Ralph Lauren are in a slightly different position but they technically could have a similar online comeback. But even with loads of Photoshop videos on YouTube showing the extent to which magazine images are altered, we'll be waiting a very long time for a high fashion institution like Ralph Lauren to publish un-touched pictures in the glossies.

Picture courtesy of mugley. Some rights reserved.