Today’s issue with airbrushing models in advertising mimics ancient Roman propaganda, however perhaps not with the same motive. Augustus of Primaporta’s statue portraying him as a young man—when in fact he was 70 years old— is not unlike brands portraying models in a way that are not. It is interesting to see this issue spanning out from 20 BCE to present day.
The statue of Augustus of Primaporta, which stands in the Braccio Nouvo of the Vatican City, is a young man in military gear and in a strong, leadership stance. Despite what the statue portrays, Augustus was not young when it was created. This realization made parallels between it and the airbrushing industry of today apparent. Whether Augustus chose to be portrayed this way or not, the similarity between the two situations is easy to see. There is a plethora of before and after images showing how different people look once they leave their body in the hands of the magazine trying to perfect their image. This very situation has placed a target on “Photoshop as a big
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In a way, Augustus being portrayed as a more ideal version of himself could be seen as an ancient form of PhotoShop, showing a somewhat “airbrushed” Augustus.
In 20 BCE, changing someone’s appearance was not an issue. However, as time has gone on a negative connotation has been attached to being Photoshopped when it relates to altering someone’s appearance. It is believed that showing models with no flaws in the media is negatively affecting the body image of society, young girls in particular. According to Victoria’s Secret, there is a “perfect body,” and images were released in 2014 (Hadwin et al., 2015). The images were heavily photoshopped, as well containing models with the same body type. The campaign was soon changed due to