The act of making something overt which desperately needs to be exposed, but which probably wouldn't be otherwise. Overtizing can be accomplished through the creative arts, such as literature, in which it is called "exposition", or even through the visual arts, where, for example, closet racists can be depicted as Nazis, shouting oppressive messages -- which they would probably never overtly do in real life, but instead actually do hold such agendas.
Though it had long been admitted by an honest few that the governor had close ties to the mob, it took an overtized image of him wearing a pin-stripe suit and brass knuckles to break the ice and motivate public honesty about the truth.