Friday, 3rd of February 2012
Anti-wrinkle ad banned by anti-airbrush MP
L’Oreal’s latest advertising campaign for its age-combating, anti-wrinkle, firming cream claims: “It’s not a facelift, it’s Revitalift” – but actually it seems it’s more a case of clever airbrushing.
The ad featuring the flawless complexion of British actress (and Mrs James Bond) Rachel Weisz has been banned by the ASA for being ‘misleading’ after a complaint was filed by ‘serial advert-banner’ Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson. But this isn’t the first time that L’Oreal has been caught out for misleading advertising. The company is standing by its product saying it does not “believe that the ad exaggerates the effect that can be achieved using this product.”
Now for 41, Ms. Weisz looks nothing short of phenomenal – but common sense must tell you that that’s probably down to her genes, an actresses’ salary and the lifestyle that goes hand-in-hand with it – not entirely down to the effects a jar of face cream.
Who hasn’t been seduced by the latest must-have product, only to find that it doesn’t exactly do what it says on the tin? Consumer advertising has long been in the game of over-exaggeration so much so that nowadays we don’t always expect the products we buy to live up to the hype – especially when it comes to cosmetics. This fact is sad but true – so should companies be doing their best to reverse this assumption?
For L’Oreal, who have a brand built around some of the biggest names in the world – Weisz, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Cheryl Cole to name but a few – now have yet another smudge to their perfectly polished reputation and should have a rethink of the way they go about their advertising. See the success of brands like Dove – who use ‘normal’ models in their campaigns.
In the PR game we like to encourage clients to shout about what they are good at, emphasise their successes and make sure everyone knows their messages - but it must be based on some truth – in short we don’t like to airbrush.
