What To Do When Beauty Companies Lie To You

Part of the job of the Beauty Brains is to help you understand how the advertising process for cosmetic products works. Here’s an interesting case from the UK that involves a TV commercial for Nivea Crème.

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The commercial begins with the phrase “Here comes the sun, it’s for everyone …” and then shows the people using the product in a variety of ways – as a moisturizing cream, a shaving product, a lip balm, on a sports injury, on a beach after swimming, as a face paint, and as a make-up remover. A consumer complained that the advertisement is misleading because it implies that the product has healing and sun protection properties.

Beiersdorf UK Ltd, the maker of Nivea, argued that the commercial simply shows how people use Nivea Crème in creative, different ways. The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) agreed with the manufacturer and ruled that the advertisement was NOT misleading. In the ASA’s opinion…

“…viewers generally understood Nivea was a moisturiser and nothing more. We considered it was generally accepted that a parent might use a moisturising cream to soothe a bruise or knock that a child had sustained and that the shots were unlikely to mislead viewers into thinking the product had additional sun protection, after sun or healing properties.”

Whether you agree with the ASA’s ruling or not, it’s important to be aware that the UK (and the US as well) have a process that checks the validity of advertising claims and that gives consumers the ability to speak out against advertising that they feel is wrong. So you see, there’s nothing at all misleading about this commercial.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have the strangest urge to brush my teeth with Nivea moisturizing cream.