Glamour magazines’ ethics probed in C4 game

Channel 4 has unveiled a new game that exposes teen body image issues driven by fashion magazines and beauty adverts.

The new online game, Cover Girl, puts players in the role of a desk artist at a publishing house, where it asks the player to use numerous Photoshop techniques to enhance the beauty of models in billboard adverts and magazine covers.

Channel 4 Education hopes this will give players perspectives on how Western standards of beauty are increased by unnatural methods.

The game was developed by Yorkshire based studio Tuna Technologies.

“Cover Girl aims to spark conversation about how glossy magazines can subtly tweak images for effect and how you shouldn’t always trust what you first see,” read a post on the Channel 4 Education blog.

In November, the game’s creators Tuna Technologies said it cut its studio workforce down to just two staff and will move out of its current office to a smaller base.

The game can be found here.