Tom Corbett’s Campaign Photoshopped Him Next to a Black Woman

The above image is at the bottom of every page on Tom Corbett’s campaign website. But it turns out these smiling people were not all happy because they were meeting Tom Corbett: Some were happy because they were being paid to be in stock photographs.

Buzzfeed reported last night on the black woman directly next to Corbett, identifying her as a woman in the “Financial Advisor Talking To Senior Couple At Home” photo on Shutterstock (see below).

The Photoshopped black woman is what websites are leading with, generally, because it’s funny anD it makes a good contrast with some of Corbett’s quotes. And the Corbett campaign eventually ’fessed up, admitting the woman was Photoshopped into the footer image.

But it wasn’t just this woman: The entire footer image is a composite! Everyone in the shot is compiled from photographs, though not likely all from stock photographs where financial advisors talk to couples. “The whole website footer graphic is a work of Photoshop,” the Corbett campaign told Buzzfeed, later adding that “the graphic has both stock photos and actual photos in it.”

This makes it even funnier, I think: The Corbett campaign couldn’t get anyone to stand around and pose for a campaign photo with the candidate? They couldn’t hire anyone to do it? The Commonwealth Foundation was able to hire people to protest at a teachers’ protest! Surely there are people who would consent to be photographed with Corbett.