London Olympic organisers apology for omitting Belfast

That's HMS Belfast not the city on the banks of the Lagan.

Earlier this week the London 2012 organiser had released a advert that shows an iconic stretch of the River Thames without one of that part's icons, the one that sits on the water.

Picture comparison via BBC

They said that the omission of the World War II and Korean War veteran was "a simple mistake in the advertising production process", Bizarrely the ship has been there for 40 years, far longer than City Hall to the fore of the image and many of the buildings around it.

But surely for the ship that has been part of the riverscape for 4 decades to not be there means that the picture had to be airbrushed with the removal of it in the first place. As the image on the Mirror's website shows there was quite a lot of airbrushing done.

The Shard obviously had to be completed. Indeed there is shockingly not a crane visible anywhere on this London skyline. But to take HMS Belfast out altogether needs more explanation that simply being a simple mistake. I'll accept that maybe the image at the river may have needed some touching up, but there is no reason why such a large part of the riverscape needed to be removed to do so.

It's bizarre that such a fundamental omission was allowed to go out, first from the ad agency to London 2012, then to have been signed off from London 2012 to go to press and indeed be put up.

A simple mistake that wasn't picked up along various lines of approval, probably from a number of London based people who know that stretch of the Thames. Draw your own conclusions.

A is for Airbushing Part II - Whoops Publish After Editing

Remember the other day when the poster of David Cameron led to claims of Airbrushing. Well the Mirror have issued a side by side comparison.


What do you think?

Tut tut Dave. No airbrushing you say. Time to fess up.

READ ALSO: If you think this sample of airbrushing is bad take a look at the original airbrushed version curtesy of Olly's Onions before Dave decided that was going too far.

UPDATE: I did an edit and saved as draft rather than publishing. Sorry to all who visited once already.

A is for Airbrushing

There has been some talk today about Dave's new poster. Airbrushed or not airbushed that is the question.



Is it the cheekbones? Is it a missing adams apple? Looking below I think that isn't prominent at times anway. But what that suggestion does lead me to is the chin. Look above it looks chiseled, down below less so.



Read also: Nick Thornsby has this to add on the subject.

Twigs Have Blemishes Too

Well I'm sitting on the HSS heading away from Scotland (actually currently still surrounded by Scotland as we're still in Loch Ryan) for the Christmas holidays, so I'm only just catching up on stuff that has been happening since my three trains to get here.

One thing I did see on TV before setting off was Jo Swinson talking about the Olay ad for wrinkle cream in which Twiggy's wriggles had been airbrushed out, it aired at 7:40 this morning a time of that show I don't usually see. Reading on Lib Dem Voice just now there is a party press release about the Advertising Standards Agency banning this misleading advert.

The fact that we live in botox world is no excuse for a company producing wrinkle reduction cream to try and compete on a par with that medical solution. The fact that the results as advertised where lies is something that the ASA needs to take a stand on and should be applauded for their decision in this case. Anyway I thought scientists had shown us that while the perfect image is our fantasy when it comes to reality it is the little imperfections of the person that we end up loving that endear them to us.

Listening to Jo this morning she put forward a very strong case for the whole body image argument against airbrushing in advertising giving false imagery for people to live up to. I say people because I was very impressed to her Jo say "and men too" when talking about the problem. Now I know that the campaign was part of the Real Woman initiative that the party made policy at conference in Bournemouth earlier this year, but as I pointed out at the time the issue it affects men as well.

To be honest I can't honestly remember if I've actually raised the issue with Jo in person on the numerous times we have met in the intervening months. I know I have raised it with a number of people and was doing so at conference, even though I had another appointment at the time of the actual debate. However, I was glad to see that Jo has taken that point on board and whether I mentioned it to her directly or she read it on the blog or from other source this is truly an issue that isn't really gender specific.

By the way Twiggy turned 60 on the day of the Real Woman debate of confernce. I know this without having to look it up as the debate took place on our mutual birthdays, though Twiggy is 20 years my senior.