» Shelby AC Cobra http://www.brandsareopinions.com Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:41:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 On Transparency, Authenticity, and Tramp Stamps http://www.brandsareopinions.com/on-transparency-authenticity-and-tramp-stamps/ http://www.brandsareopinions.com/on-transparency-authenticity-and-tramp-stamps/#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:59:03 +0000 Dennis Ryan http://collective-thinking.com/?p=874 Continue reading →]]> bloggySo the new Sports Illustrated features a photo spread of open wheel racer/cheesy hussy Danica Patrick.  That in itself, is not a story.  After all, this is the same press-hungry Indy Driver who acquiesced to the post-adolescent idiocy of the past few years of godawful Go Daddy commercials. No, this story springs from the routine photoshopping that the magazine did to Ms. Patrick’s photos.  Again, not a real story since almost any attractive person you see in a magazine has been photoshopped to have whiter eyes, smoother skin and a more flattering figure.

Danica however, had her lower back tattoo removed.  And apparently without her knowing. The editorial staff at SI determined that ink on her sacroiliac would either offend or disinterest their readership and so they removed the design altogether.

I won’t bother arguing whether this kind of photoshopped revisionism is a good or a bad thing.  Certainly if I were modeling, I’d like every possible visual enhancing technique brought to bear and I would thank the good Lord that I had the fortune to be born in this, the digital age.  However, what I do take umbrage with is that the twentieth century’s most gorgeous and powerful example of automotive power–the Shelby AC Cobra–serves as a mere backdrop for this crass cultural footnote.

Look Sports Illustrated–you want sexy?  Lose the cheesecake altogether and just show that car…

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79
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