This vintage ad illustration makes photoshopped ads look realistic by comparison

Retrogasm recently posted this old Jantzen girdle ad from the 1940s. 

Here are a couple more, via allgraphically.com (the second is fromt he '50s):

Portraying unrealistic body types in ads and fashion is nothing new. The difference between fashion illustration and manipulated photos, however, is that it is easy to mistake the latter for reality. 

The impossibly long and slender ladies in the ads above can more easily be dismissed as cartoons.

Ralph Lauren ad, via Photoshop Disasters

Via ynaija.com

Miu Miu ad via The Frisky

And that's the problem with digital image manipulation: It lets impressionable young minds believe they're looking at reality, rather than fantasy.

Jantzen was originally a swimsuit company. It's interesting to note that its ads for swimwear around the same time celebrated the way it exaggerated "curves":

via allgraphically.com

Here, the hourglass shape (itself a challenging, if more biologically useful beauty ideal) is the thing. And once again, it is exaggerated.

And it still is...

Via Joe Crazy