What the ideal man looks like in 19 countries around the world

Six months ago, a journalist sent a picture of herself to designers in forty countries around the world, with the brief being to "make her beautiful".

The results came back and varied drastically, which was seen by some as indicative of the perception of the "ideal" woman's body in different cultures.

The team at Superdrug have now done the same with a male body, sending this image...

...to designers in 19 different countries, with the same brief.

Here is what they sent back:

Australia:

Bangladesh:

China:

Colombia:

Croatia:

Egypt:

Indonesia:

Macedonia:

Nigeria:

Pakistan:

Philippines:

Portugal:

Russia:

Serbia:

South Africa:

Spain:

UK:

US:

Venezuela:

While photoshoppers from Egypt, the US, South Africa and the Philippines went for more chiselled men, designers from Serbia, Australia and Pakistan saw a less toned body as ideal.

The changes, of course, are only symptomatic of 19 different people's opinions and their varying abilities with photoshop, but are interesting nonetheless in how they alter an image.

To see the results in more detail, visit the campaign website, which seeks to combat pressures for an ideal body type.

Denise Hatton, Chief Executive of YMCA England, said:

Superdrug’s second ‘Perceptions of Perfection’ report shines a much-needed light on the pressures men across the globe face regarding body image.

Men suffer equally with women around low body confidence as many strive to attain a standard of ‘attractiveness’ that is both often unobtainable and, as this report shows, driven by cultural perceptions and advertising ideals.

Our own research found that 40 per cent of men in the UK felt pressure from television and magazines to have a ‘perfect’ body and this has negative effects on how they view themselves and others.