[inlikealamb]

>we no longer accept every image as representing absolute truth

That's not true for many people (I'd go as far to say most), and we're so inundated with it that unedited media is the minority. Ad campaigns get PR for being "unedited" and even then they're heavily art directed (casting, lighting, styling, etc) to compensate.

The effects are so widespread that they're subliminal, even if you're conscious of the scope that they occur. Billboards, tv, movies, newspaper, magazines, products on shelves, menus at restaurants, wedding photos, family christmas postcards... it's inescapable.

Even if you're some paragon of mindfulness and truth in image editing and can somehow isolate yourself from its influence, you're still subject to it because of how it impacts the way everyone else behaves and sees the world.

We should learn from these mistakes.

[kristofferR]

Just last month, Norway made changes to it's Advertisement Act, that states:

"The advertiser, and the person designing the advertisement, shall further ensure that the advertisement where a body's shape, size or skin has been changed by retouching or other manipulation, shall be marked."

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&u=https:/...

[autoexec]

photo manipulation is pervasive, but I don't take that as evidence that it is actually being believed as truth. I'm not really sure what the subliminal effects are. If you see an ad for a fast food burger on TV it might successfully make you hungry, and make you want to go to that restaurant, but nobody really expects the food they get will look anything like the food in the ad did.

[inlikealamb]

> but nobody really expects the food they get will look anything like the food in the ad did

Have you ever worked at a restaurant? It's not as unusual as you think. A lot of us on HN are in bubbles of savvy people because of our tech-related professions, and most people are NOT savvy. Many people never consciously think about the images they're subjected to.

[autoexec]

Wouldn't it be a problem for the restaurant if people were contently sending food back or being disappointed by the product because it didn't look like the ad? I mean, the difference is striking! (see https://i.imgur.com/e9EaVbu.jpeg). If I genuinely expected the first burger in that image and got served the second one I'd demand my money back and maybe never step foot in that restaurant again! Wouldn't most people? It seems more likely to me that most people accept that the first burger is a fantasy.

[inlikealamb]

I worked restaurants through college and I've probably had food thrown at me over a dozen times because it didn't look like the menu!

It's not the norm, but it's not completely unusual. I've had many more people complain about the disparity in less severe terms. It's a very weird world out there, and if I've learned anything it's that I'm incredibly lucky to have any amount of self-awareness because a lot of people are running around out there on pure id... unaware of just about anything. If you're at all skeptical about anything you're ahead of the curve.