A South Florida lawmaker is taking on Photoshopped ads, saying the enhanced images send the wrong message.
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has introduced a bill called the "Truth in Advertising Act of 2014" which would study the effects of pictures in ads that are Photoshopped to perfection.
Ros Lehtinen says these images are not giving young women the right idea of what beauty is.
"Especially young girls who think 'That's what I should look like, I need to get thinner, thinner, thinner,'" Ros-Lehtinen said. "And anorexia is a real eating disorder that can have serious health implications."
Kathleen McDonald, with the Eating Disorder Coalition, supports the bill and speaks from experience.
"I know from myself when I suffered and I look at the pictures, I thought that's what I needed to look like and that in turn propelled me to behaviors that caused an eating disorder that took up over half my life and almost killed me," McDonald said.
Ros-Lehtinen's bill reads in part that evidence links exposure to altered images to "emotional, mental and physical health issues, including eating disorders, especially among children and teenagers."
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"Having a disclaimer on an ad that [says] 'This model is not what a real person looks like,' I think that could have a huge impact, especially on a teen who is starting to form their own body image," McDonald said.
But is disclosing a beautified picture in an ad the role of government?
"The reality is that we do regulate the kind of images that we show on advertisements for cigarettes and for alcohol," Ros-Lehtinen said. "It's not 'anything goes.' Advertising is a regulated industry."
