You would think that multinational corporations and the like would have the sense to hire people who know what they are doing to do their Photoshop work, thus avoiding having an embarrassing picture being widely viewed, shared and scorned by the discerning public.
You would think that.
In honour of Photoshop’s 25th birthday, here are a few examples of times when it might have been better off left in the box…
1. The long-armed Target model
This effort from American retailer Target showing off the ‘Midkini’ is deservedly famous. From the jagged flesh-spikes in the armpit to the abnormal arms that seem to just keep going, everything about it is just horribly wrong.
2. The horribly mutated Target model
Unfortunately, Target has a long and proud history of this sort of thing. It is not in any way clear what has happened here or what this woman did to deserve it.
3. Pentax Ricoh and the tiny K-S1
Ricoh
Some companies you can forgive (a little) for lacking Photoshop know-how, but someone like Ricoh really ought to know better.
This ad for a tiny K-S1 that had been awkwardly photoshopped into a stock model’s hands made a pretty poor case for what was actually a rather good camera.
4. Spanish paper attempts to rewrite football history
Marca edited the stadium photo to add more white shirts: pic.twitter.com/Bd1ZViU8qj [@kantinu]
— Rafael Hernández (@RafaelH117) August 2, 2014
This sly desaturation by Spanish paper Marca went awry when Twitter user RafaelH117 noticed that the crowd at a match between Manchester United and Real Madrid seemed to have lost a few red shirts in favour of white ones.
6. Chanel’s Giraffe People
A couple of extremely suspect Facebook ads from Chanel:
Chanel
Chanel
Chanel will not rest until every woman has a neck the same length as her forearm for some reason.
7. The fabulous miniature Chinese woman
This effort by the government of the Chinese city of Ningguo has passed into bad Photoshop folklore. Its intended to show four regional official paying respects to a 103-year-old woman, but instead shows a tiny replica of a woman sitting in front of a man with no legs.
The Chinese government has a history of this too – let us not forget the unfortunate tale of the floating park inspectors.
8. McDonalds and the Claw Arm
McDonalds coffee is the only comfort this woman has from the horror of her deformed claw-arm.
For many, many more of these, head to psdisasters.com.
