Left: before L'Oreal, right: after.
The great thing about L'Oreal's caucasianizing and plasticizing of Beyonce is the way that they will probably proudly point to it as an example of their inclusiveness and general political correctness.
TMZ started the ball rolling; the NY Post weighs in here.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in, especially SW and Sioned!
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Monday, August 11, 2008
L'Oreal: Oops With The Levels
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64 comments:
*sigh* The sad thing is that this probably wasn't an accident.
flash news ei?
I've seen the raw file. Her skin was not lightened in post.
Have any of the people who have been kicking up a fuss about L'Oreal seen any of Beyonce's album covers?
What?
Light comes in different intensities and varieties?
It's a good thing this image wasn't accidentally darker. Then we'd be hearing about how L'Oreal made her appear in blackface.
I'm seriously trying to figure out why this specific image of beyonce was singled out.
If you do a google image search of Beyonce you'll see a variety of images with the exact same skin tone. Perhaps everyone lightens her up but the point is that it's funny to hone in on this image. I really don't get it.
Perhaps they'll turn a Caucasian model black as an apology.
R=182 B=104 G=50 is beautiful!
Anon @ 2:46, I did a Google search and couldn't find anything that looked like this L'Oreal ad. The closest was the Sports Illustrated cover
http://thebosh.com/archives/upload/2007/02/beyonce%20sports.jpg
If you've got links though I'd be interested.
Seems like they screwed up on her nose more than anything.
Didn't they do the same thing with Michael Jackson? Oh wait...
The pic on the left looks pretty dark for Beyonce.
She's the one who dyed her hair blonde.
So when is Cosmo7 going to delete the horribly offensive first comment on here?
this was done on purpose to send a message that lighter is better - the advertising industry is notorious for this - as a black male with a career in media - i cant tell you how much of this is normal practice!
thanks for shedding some (light) on this subject - no pun intended
Umm..I really don't understand the big deal. People keep using that picture to left as a comparison which is dumb because that's Beyonce at her darkest. She really does get as light as the l'oreal ad. Now, I do think they did something with her nose. The skin thing is a bunch of bull. If they did lighten her, it's by like half a shade.
at her darkest? wtf are u talkin about? do you serious think black just get lighter?
you skin color is your skin color - if anything you get darker not lighter - save in photoshop
it's not like Beyonce needs help on caucasianizing herself
I think we've always known, we women, that the cosmetics industry wants to turn us into white plastic Barbies. The difference is that Beyonce is getting paid instead of charged for it...
I looked at about 30 different pics of her, and in the "worst" case she was a light coffee color. The woman in this ad is glaringly white, as if they drowned her entire face in white powder.
I love these "it's the lighting" excuses. I mean those studio lights are so bright, right? It's their job to make everything appear pale, right? Not to light the subject accurately or anything like that.
Her nose was definitely 'shopped to be less wide: http://houstonist.com/attachments/houston_alex/beyonce.jpg
The skin wasn't as apparent to me because she's not super dark to begin with, but I definitely think they lightened her some.
First anon: sure, I believe that.
I also believe that her nose narrowed at the exact moment the picture was taken.
It cut off the ce.jpg at the end of that URL, but if you double-click you can still cut and paste the URL.
Reverse OJ Syndrome.
(remember when Time and Newsweek ran the same mugshot of OJ Simpson on their covers, but one lowered the contrast so he seemed darker and more sinister?)
i like her blond hair
I'm offended that people consider this a disaster. My daughter is biracial and thanks to the summer sun, she's a chocolate brown. During the winter (long northern NY winter) she's almost as white as me.
If a white person gets a tan, it's no big deal... but a black chick gets light and has some seriously harsh florescents flash at her, and it's "caucasionizing"
whatever
Using the Michael Jackson filter again?
Both the before and after pictures dont really look like her. It looks like two different girls that both arent Beyonce.
check this pic.
Shock horror, they retouch beauty images!
:picard:
Anon 5:07:
If the website was not concerned with bad photography/montage/retouching decision, your comment would make sense.
Misty I completely agree! I think it is a shame how we argue about skin color!! Skin is a living consistently changing organ. Black baby's can be born very dark and lighten and vise versus and the same with white baby's. What about the different things that happen to skin? Look and Michael Jackson! A very good friend of mine has Eczema and after a really bad 2 year case his skin actually changed 2 shades darker!! What about people with freckles, gone in the winter and POP in the summer. I have seen plenty of people with darker skin change lighter in spots or gradually lighten, you can see this on peoples arms and faces. I have known my neighbors son who is also of mixed race for his whole life. That boy has changed several different shades in one year alone!! What about Tanorexia? Just because you skin is light doesn't mean it's the only kind that changes. If you are black/white/brown/yellow…light/medium/dark YOUR SKIN CHANGES! If your skin has more melanin then your neighbor doesn't mean you skin is deficient and doesn't work (ie get darker), melanin works the same! More sun…darker. Less sun..lighter. Sorry Mr. Thomas, but I am surprised you aren't aware of this. It's basic Anatomy 101. Geesh guys, really?
What I find most amusing is that anyone actually believes that's Beyonce's hair at all...
I think the nose looks crappy, but the skin thing...yes, they obviously lightened it a lot. However, is everyone here really failing to notice that they lightened THE WHOLE PHOTO OF HER, not JUST her skin? There is a huge difference. You can tell the whole photo was lightened, because of her eyes and lips being lighter as well. It probably just matched the hair color better, or so thought the Photoshopper, and so that's why they went to town. I'd like to see the original, un-shopped version of this, to be absolutely sure, but I'm pretty confident that I'm right.
Why must so many things be made into a racial issue?
Go to http://www.dove.us/#/features/videos/videogallery.aspx/ and watch the video entitled Evolution. It's standard practice to make models unrecognizable (although why they feel the need to do it to someone as lovely as Beyonce is beyond me).
"PsD fails once again. NOT a photoshop disaster. A rubbish post like most of them lately. Give up. Delete blog."
Loser! Don't log on.
http://www.gillette.com/en-US/#/products/phenom/en-US/index.shtml/
I don't know where to post these so I'm jamming it in here. The image of the "Gillette Champions" with Woods, Federer and Henry is a little small but I've seen in in a grocery store. It looks like Henry and Woods forgot their razors for the photoshoot. Also, They only managed to get one good shot of Federer, so they just use it all the time:
http://www.ch.pg.com/presse/0701_gillette_champs/Gillette_Champions.jpg
Ryan
http://www.geocities.com/theactionkingsd/DeltaForce-DVDcoverart.jpg
amaaaazing photoshop disaster.
^^
uh.. seriously i thought the left one was Naomi and i dont recognize Beyonce in both of them. Bother.. And sure, if the whole picture is lightend it has nothing to do with the LIGHT colour of the hair, nooooooooo, it has to be racism, because people love to read it!
I guess the Designer just "saved to web" and Photoshop handled the Brightness by itself! ;-) haha
@Cosmo7: check out this gallery
http://24ur.com/ekskluziv/zanimivosti/napake-v-fotografijah.html
look familiar?
yes, s. aresman, I do think blacks just get lighter. My best friend's natural skin color is a very light tan, but in the summer she turns brown. But, when she doesn't go out to the beach and all for a while, she does get a few shades lighter, so I don't understand why that wouldn't happen for Beyonce. You make it seem like all black people stay one color and nothing changed. Oh, and if you were wondering, I am black. Dark skinned to be exact, and even I my skin tone changes.
Well, this is interesting. In magazines targeted to African-Americans, she's darker.
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/08/beyonce-loreal-ad.php
PsD fails once again. NOT a photoshop disaster. A rubbish post like most of them lately. Give up. Delete blog.
Dear Photoshop Disasters,
This message was from my son, who has been VERY upset about a piece of his work that you put on your sight several weeks ago.
We have talked about what happened and he is sorry, but it probably would be a good idea if you stopped posting Stephen's work.
Whitened or not, the lighter teint (or better: the photo thereof) doesn't look healthy or natural to me.
The image on the right isn't Beyonce. It's clearly Gogo Yubari.
I agree that this photo is sucpisicious, but here is another example of bad photoshop on Beyonce, what happened to her arm?
http://info2know.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/beyonce.jpg
she look more yellow than whiter, her eyes look more yellow too...
jaundice?
Hard to tell. She's pretty dark here and in this one as well, though I'm not sure why they didn't fix the wonk-eye.
"We have talked about what happened and he is sorry, but it probably would be a good idea if you stopped posting Stephen's work."
Bwahahaha! Stephen needs a vacay.
S aresman thomas - LOL! So you don't get lighter in the winter? Your tans are permanent??
Honestly I think this is an effect of excessive lighting and an extremely fake looking hair color washing out her lovely skin, but whatever. It still looks absolutely terrible.
If you see the "original" of the L'Oreal picture and compare it with the admittedly lighter cover posted here, you can see that the magenta color profile has been either almost or completely taken out. EVERYTHING on the picture was lightened (including her shirt, the background and lettering). This was a bad printing process, not racism.
Well try saying that to the Shakers. It might not go over very well.
"Anonymous said...
Well, this is interesting. In magazines targeted to African-Americans, she's darker."
Can be a product of the print process, but even if it is on purpose, this has nothing to do with racism, just with targeting your audience. If you look at sun protection ads in Australia the models are much lighter coloured than in Europe, because due to the very high radiation levels down under the darker skin is more likely connected with skin cancer. And I'm talking about the same shots for sure.
The woman will hock anything to keep her mug out there. And frankly, she photoshops herself on her own pictures. So I really don't any sympathy that L'Oreal decides to do the same. Beyonce isn't exactly the darkest skinned woman out there. She looks very very light a lot of the time... certainly lighter than the 'before' picture.
We'll stop posting Stephen's work when it stops sucking.
KEEP PRACTICING, STEVE!!!!
"this has nothing to do with racism, just with targeting your audience."
ya! 'cause (mags assume that) white people only wanna look at white people, and black people only wanna look at black people! that isn't racist!
*headdesk*
so its not racist to only target one race of people? hmmmm?
No, it's not. Look at ads in Asian countries like Malaysia or Thailand, where a lighter skin is all the rage and you will find all celebrities of every race and heritage to be very, very light skinned. I remember an ad with George Clooney in Kuala Lumpur last year, he looked like a vampire to me. Covers of CDs from Mariah Carey there show a much lighter skin (and more clothes for sure), but they used the same shots and shopped it. Funny is, in Saudi Arabia I saw the same cover with all the additional clothing, but the dark and seemingly quite original coloured skin. Racism? No. It was racism toning O.J. Simpson darker to let him look more sinister, but this is a completely different cup of tea. This is advertising, you always try to achieve a look of your product closest to what your audience appreciate the most. And that is independent whether you take a shot of a car, cornflakes or Beyoncé Knowles. Editing a shot of a person can be racism, especially if you use more subtle changes to get an image or stereotype across. All these things are not happening here. You want a certain look and if you think something of a shot is not feasible for the major part of the public you address, you change that. This can be hair colour, accessories, even the number of people you see. There are no holy cows in this field. And if all this is allowed and normal business practice in advertising, than adjusting the tone of the skin of any person is NOT racism.
but if their lightening your skin color it gives the impression that to have lighter skin is more acceptable, does it not. That in itself is racist because it tells society that beauty is in lighter or white skin - and like with the oj cover - being darker is aligned with being evil. I have dark skin - i was born with dark skin - does that mean I'm evil?
A person born with white skin - according to you is beautiful and innocent! This nonsense must stop. When I was young i use to fall for this bologna but now that i'm an adult I recognize this is a way that "society" tries to asset it's dominance over people who don't look like them.
This is not just in advertisements - its all over the media - movies (i.e. tropical thunder) - tv shows - news - PLEASE WAKE UP!
Beyounce is an r&b artist who makes music for everyone not just white people. This in itself is racist.
ALSO: I know how this works - if you have a product you get together stats for which DEMOGRAPHIC you want to sell your product to. For example, 18-35 yr old - white males who make over $150,000 a year - in a single household - with a 4 year degree. If this is your target audience your not going to have wesley snipes in the commerical! Your going to have a white person between the ages of 18-35, period. But if you take a look at television on any given night between 8pm and 10pm you will notice the majority of the commericals have white people in them. Now, is this to say that only white people watch tv and have the income to buy this product or because they feel blacks will buy their product anyway without having to directly target them with this product?
White people are not the only people in America - so why does the media pretend as if they are?
Beyonce resembles herself in those two photos as much as Michael Jackson as he is now, resembles himself when he was a cute black kid before he turned into an ugly whitish walking advertisement for too much bad plastic surgery!
At least Beyonce black and Beyonce "whitened" are both beautiful!
In photography, you ALWAYS over expose the model, to downplay imperfections and skin flaws and such.
If she were white, frankly, we wouldn't be having the discussion. THAT'S what the shame is. That race is still so much of an issue that we even notice this and have to discuss whether or not it's racist...because she's black.
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