Adventures In Photoshopping: Nicolas Sarkozy & His “Poignees d’Amour”

So you’re a French gossip magazine and you score pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy on vacation in America, shirtless. Well and good. Then you decide to photoshop away the French President’s poignees d’amour (aka love handles). It might be a kind gesture to Sarko, but… whoops. You just caught the attention of journalists all across Europe.

The photos were originally published in gossip mag Paris Match. Newsweekly L’Express was tipped off that Sarkozy’s picture was airbrushed and did a Photoshop expose of their own. German mag Der Spiegel contacted Paris Match and got a weak excuse:

“The mag justified the touchup by saying Sarkozy’s awkward position in the boat made the bulge look bigger than it was.”

However, Paris Match owner Arnaud Lagardere is a close friend of Sarkozy and has sacked Paris Match employees for publishing articles critical of Sarkozy and his family in the past. So it goes…

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.