Does Taylor Swift’s CoverGirl Ad Deserve To Be Banned?

by Verena von Pfetten | 9:38 am, December 20th, 2011

Following in the footsteps of their ad-regulating colleagues across the pond, the National Advertising Division has banned a CoverGirl campaign featuring celebrity spokesperson Taylor Swift for excessive Photoshopping. In other words, if you thought Swift’s lashes looked too good to be true, you’re right.

The ad in question was for NatureLuxe Mousse Mascara, which CoverGirl claimed delivered “superior performance” in doubling the volume of one’s bare lashes and offering a 20% lighter formula than “the most expensive mascara” on the market. Unfortunately, the lashes on display in the ad aren’t courtesy of this miracle mascara, but because Swift’s “lashes [were] enhanced in post production” — at least according to the fine print at the bottom of the image.

According to NAD, it is “well-established that product demonstrations in advertisements must be truthful and accurate and cannot be enhanced,” which is to say: Photoshop is not allowed. And while the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has been banning ads left and right, this is the first crackdown by NAD on a major campaign.

NAD’s director Andrea Levine told Business Insider, “You can’t use a photograph to demonstrate how a cosmetic will look after it is applied to a woman’s face and then – in the mice type – have a disclosure that says ‘okay, not really.’”

Case in point, an anti-aging Maybelline ad featuring Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts was banned over the summer for “digitally retouching” their skin.

But not all ads are bad because they’ve been photoshopped. Just last month, the ASA banned a Miu Miu ad featuring True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld because it “depicted a child in an unsafe position.” Steinfeld was photographed crying while perched on a set of empty train tracks.

[BI via HuffPost Style.]

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Thediabetesdays

if that’s the case, every mascara and beauty advert deserves to be banned these days, we all know they’re enhanced in some way or another in post production and if you don’t realise it than you must be an idiot. nobody even takes notice of the size of lashes and everything anymore, we all know that on the cover of every magazine, the skin and make up of every billboard, the movement of every music video and the colour of hair advertisements is enhanced. as i said, if you don’t realise that, you’re an idiot.
bozekmm

I think it’s fair to ban the ad. It’s an untruthful product demonstration. Akin to false advertising.
Guest

What is this National Advertising Division and what power does it have to ban advertisements?
Anonymous

all the beauty products’ adverts should be banned then
guest

if only the NAD would start banning all of the ridiculous pharmacutical adds–talk about a load of brainwashing BS.
Tommyboy

no matter how much you airbrush her she is still fugley
Anonymous

It should be banned not only because of its false advertising but because we are all sick and tired of these ‘so-called’ celebrities touting products everywhere we look. This society must get out of the mentality that just because an overpaid actor/sports star or singer is being paid to ‘sell it’, the product is worth buying. Why put more money in their pocket?
BigSky

If that is the case then child pageants should also be banned. This is just stupid. Some body was bored and needed to create a distraction. Get over it.
Oncearound56

I don’t fall for all that nonsense in ads such as these. They all wear false eyelashes to enhance a product. I call it false advertising and the cosmetic industry is the worse
Maria Marabella

False advertising, like almost all ads of this kind.

Does Taylor Swift’s CoverGirl Ad Deserve To Be Banned?

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Does Taylor Swift’s CoverGirl Ad Deserve To Be Banned?

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