Swiss Paper Attacks Obama With Photoshop
Switzerland is known through history for their staunch neutrality in world affairs. But here, in a double-page spread magazine ad, WOZ, a Swiss weekly newspaper, takes a cheap shot at our President with some really cheap retouching. I guess Swiss bankers think Obama is an evil monster? Or the anti-Christ? Or just plain ugly? Whichever it is, that’s some dreadfully awful photography manipulation. The tagline is “Have your own opinion.” Switzerland now joins Israel, Mexico, Russia and IKEA on the worldwide Obama ad exploitation tour lineup. His administration has gotten pretty aggressive about going after American advertisers who use the President’s likeness to sell product. This egregious capitalization presents a good opportunity for Obama to get on the red phone and yell at those Lederhosen wearin’, Alpenhorn-blowin’ non-aggressors. Jump for the second ad of the campaign, featuring a devilish-looking Pope and here’s a third one featuring German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Editor-in-Chief:
Erm. Perhaps you're being ironic here, but just in case not: the point of the ad is that the facial features are reversed in the right photo. They are taken from an upside-down picture and pasted on a right-side-up picture (Just compare the teeth and the eyes in both pictures). Hence the play on words with "viewpoint".
Just for your information: WOZ is a left-leaning (actually, leaning is the wrong word, they are extremely to the left) weekly and they certainly don't show solidarity with the banks. This is not meant as an attack on Obama, but on the bankers! (that includes American and Swiss bankers, obviously, since they are all capitalists = evil in the view of WOZ)
Not to mention that our political neutrality does not in any way limit the freedom of press.
You do realize that these aren't real ads, and are
"student comps".
Behold the power of the interwebs.
If they're "student comps," than why is the client's Zurich ad agency listed at the source?
Im sorry to see you being hysterical over a non-issue – the whole point of the ad is that the human brain recognises faces by looking at the mouth and eyes – a upside down face will look normal if these are reversed to the upright position. The whole cover is a play on this phenomenon, not some implication that obama is ugly or a monster …
Leon el al: That is a nice visual trick, but, as any ad student will tell you, if you have to explain an ad, the ad doesn't get a passing grade.
as any internetter will tell you, reacting to this ad makes u butthurt.
Hello I’m having a technical obstacle browsing your blog, I am having 501 errors pretty frequently, I am not way too clear as to why however when I reload the page it comes fine.
Hey man. Sending this from a Mobile. thanks! very helpful post!! like the template btw