Here’s an article that reports the National Advertising Division (NAD) has ruled against Procter & Gamble’s Cover girl brand for unfairly using lash extensions in a mascara ad. The NAD noted that P&G did appropriately disclaim the use of the lash extensions with an asterisk at the bottom of the ad, however they still considered the practice to be potentially misleading to consumers.
It’s one thing to try to make a model look her best in advertising photography. When we used to do commercial shoots for haircare products it was very common to style the model’s hair before taking the final pictures. So, if in this case they had just used an eyelash curler or some similar “styling” step it would’ve been fine. But adding lash enhancers seems like putting a wig on a woman and then photographing her for a shampoo ad. Or giving a guy a new set of dentures and featuring his mouth in a teeth whitening ad. We don’t know about you but to us this seems like blatant deception. The sad thing is that Big Beauty companies will continue with this practice unless you, the consumer, vote with your wallet.
What do you think? Would you be willing to stop buying one of your favorite brands to send them a message? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
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Unfair. Dislike.
However, what if the model uses Latisse? And how would you know? that to me is similarly unfair.
Interesting question Grace. I think it would be ok if the model used Latisse because that would just be like choosing a woman with beautiful hair to be in a shampoo commercial. (Which is standard practice.) But artificially enhancing her lashes with extensions JUST for the sake of making the mascara look good is different – especially if they’re doing “before and after” photographs.
I swear most mascara ads look like the model is wearing false eyelashes, which always annoys the hell out of me. Falsies or extensions just make me think that they don’t trust the product to look good, and that’s not a great selling point.
Loss of confidence in the brand is NOT a good result of an advertisement!
The consumer is responsible for what they do and purchase. No one is forcing anyone to buy beauty products. It’s a choice.
Agreed, Melody. But that doesn’t mean that beauty companies should be able to present misleading information.
You are so right about those commercials! I mean, you go home after buying the mascara thinking they are going to enhance and really make your lashes look the way they do on TV and then you are sorely mistaken! I wish they would be real and genuine about it. Besides most girls in trend are wearing false lashes anyway. So they don’t need to fake it any longer in the commercials!
It definitely does bug me that beauty companies feel the need to go over the top to sell simple products. I don’t want over the top I just want everyday use.
I think it should not be allowed but I don’t believe in the idea of “voting with your dollar” as it’s not a choice we can all make. Especially working class people like my family. I believe the government should regulate things that may be harmful to young girl’s mental health and if they are going to keep on using fake lashes the asterisk should be big enough to be easily read. Beauty Redefined is a great site on women and girl’s self image I would recommend to everyone. Maybe BB could even get in contact with them and do an article of interviewing them on being interviewed by them. beautyredefined.net
they could have at least done a better job at making the inserts look like real lashes. but these days, attempting a different sales pitch. they have given up and lost the battle against clumpy mascara. now the ads say we want clumpy messy mascara application and use cute asian kawaii words to try and convince us.
I love this comment and I agree with you 100%. I mean yeah advertising is important and all, but if you’re going to sell an awful product and try and upsell all of its bad points then I think you seriously need to reevaluate your product and how you see you clients (we all know that no one likes clumpy mascara, you can pay $3 and get a mascara that will by super clumpy, so who’s gonna fall for an ad charging us $10 for clumpy eyelashes just because the commercial used cute words to attach to the product?)