Why is Britney Spears so airbrushed?

There is a ton of buzzing going on around the Internet over the new Britney Spears promotional photo, which you can see over here. No one can stop talking about how heavily airbrushed it is.

There’s no doubt that there’s very little real Britney in the photo. It hardly even looks like her. The first time I saw it I thought it was Jessica Simpson and I wondered why she was dressed like that since it doesn’t fit in with her new country music hopes. Then I realized, no, it’s Britney.

I understand airbrushing in professional photos. Everyone does it from magazines to promo shoots. But to me, airbrushing is supposed to be about brightening the photo up a bit if the lighting wasn’t as good as originally thought. It’s about removing blemishes that weren’t covered well enough by make-up. It’s about removing the stray hair hanging in front of someone’s face that no one noticed until it was too late. Even little things like whitening teeth or deepening a dimple, that’s fine.

But this photo of Britney is so overly airbrushed that it’s bordering on ridiculous - and the worst thing is that I don’t understand why. Britney has been looking amazing lately. She looks happy, she’s beautiful, and her body is in tip top shape. Why would her promo people feel they had to turn someone who is already beautiful into a wax figure mockery of herself?

What do you think of the promo picture? Is it hot or over the top?