Fake, fake, fake, fake.
Excellent campaign from the Swedish government. On Flicka.gov.se you can read about how we are being surrounded by messages. About retouching, video effects, clever advertising slogans.
Funny and unexpected. Inspiring, awful and beautiful. Often irritating and frightening – even injurious. We are surrounded by pictures and messages. In the mirror, at school, in newspapers, advertising boards and at home in front of the tv. Many of them talks bout how we are or should be. Slimmer, prettier, faster.
Which picture is the strongest? How are girls, boys and adults affected by all the different pictures, values and messages? Do you feel angry or happy? Uneasy and sad or energized? Or maybe everything at once? Is this something we should involve in? Flicka thinks so.
Check it out. Most of it is in Swedish, but the flash animation showing how a cover girl is photoshopped to look better is very good. There are also two ads that Swedish television channels TV3 and TV4 wouldn’t air. One of them shows a typical rap video: Cool rapper in front of bikini silicon babes washing his cars. Then one of the babes turns to the camera asking “Why do we behave like this?” (in Swedish). Then shows the phone number of a Swedish record executive, so you can call him yourself to ask why. Clever!
This is important. I think most people know that they are being “fooled”, but not how much. And exactly how it’s done. It’s important that kids learn about these things, and even learn how to use the techniques themselves. Some may think this sounds silly – why teach them how to make even more fake cover pictures?
It’s the same as with other tools: Learn people how to use them, and they will spot when someone tries to influence them. We teach our kids how to analyze texts, so they can find the message, and figure out how the author does it.
I have a feeling that the written word is well covered in education. Video and pictures not. I can understand why: Teachers don’t have the knowledge, and schools don’t have the equipment.
So that leaves some work to do for techie parents: Teach your kids how to make retouched covers. Teach them video editing. Teach them about camera position, gaussian blur, lighting and color correction. It really should be second nature to them if they want to withstand the pressure that advertising and modern mass media puts on them.
Update: Small followup posted December 2005.
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