The Case Study Adobe Won’t Publish

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had a problem. They needed a way to intimidate the West but with just three puny medium-range missiles, how could they possibly frighten the mighty Great Satan? Yet a moribund economy and an arms embargo meant that the Guard was strapped for cash and couldn’t invest in expensive rocketry. That’s when they decided to leverage the force-multiplying capabilities of Adobe Photoshop.

Now, Iran has the missiles it needs in its showdown with West without the burden of fielding a modern arsenal. “Thanks to Photoshop, the meddling powers think we have weapons we don’t actually possess,” said a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard. “Now we definitely won’t be invaded!”

I’ve read a number of news reports about this bizarre incident and nowhere did I see any real discussion of whether the Iranians, you know, actually used Photoshop. It was just assumed that they did. Like Google, Photoshop appears to have taken its place among the brand-turned-verb.

But couldn’t, say, Corel Paint Shop Pro manipulate an image in this fashion? (Aral Balkan seems to have some more persuasive information pointing toward Photoshop.)

Whether the Iranians actually used Photoshop or “Photoshop” — some clever bloggers have now gotten into the act. This pic courtesy of Fark. (hat tip: Blake Hounshell.)