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    Taylor Swift's retouched CoverGirl Campaign Pulled. Should Makeup Ads Get Real?

    By Piper Weiss, Shine Staff | Fashion – Wed, Dec 21, 2011 11:24 AM EST

    It happened: Taylor Swift , America's squeaky clean sweetheart, is under fire for being too unrealistic. The CoverGirl spokesperson who's already appeared in a series of print and commercial ads for the makeup brand, is the target of a new inquiry by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus Claims.

    In a print ad for the CoverGirl NatureLuxe Mousse Mascara, she appears milky-skinned, eyes aflutter. "2X more volume" promises the copy beside her lustrous lashes. And in much finer print, "lashes enhanced in post production."

    Check out: how Taylor Swift celebrated her 22nd birthday

    Nobody's questioning Taylor Swift's beauty, but the ability to obtain her voluminous lashes with CoverGirl's product and zero help from Photoshop? Hard to believe. The NAD asked the makeup company to substantiate the claims it makes in the ad (double the volume, 20 percent lighter than other mascaras). Instead, parent company Proctor and Gamble decided to just pull the whole campaign.

    "Upon receiving the inquiry from the NAD, P&G discontinued the advertisement in question," a P&G spokesperon wrote in an emailed statement to press. "The NAD has deemed our intervention as accurate and proper. We have always been committed, and we continue to be committed, to featuring visuals and claims that accurately represent our products' benefits."

    Read more: The best, worst and strangest bans of 2011

    We're used to campaigns being pulled due to graphic, sexually explicit content, but ads under fire for being too cleaned-up ushers in a new phase of whistle-blowing. Are advertisers, particularly those hawking beauty products, prepared to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

    "It is well established that product demonstrations in advertisements must be truthful and accurate and cannot be enhanced," an NAD spokesperson stated in response to the retracted campaign.

    In an interview with Business Insider , NAD director Andrea Levine, was a little more blunt. "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.'"

    But for a long time, you could--as long as you didn't talk about it. "Everybody does it," advertising beauty consultant Suzanne Grayson told AdAge earlier this week. "It's been more aggressive by manufacturers, because they see what other people are getting away with, and it becomes, 'Can you top this?'"

    In the UK, media watchdogs have been on a campaign to keep beauty ads honest. In 2010, an ad for Rimmel Mascara was banned after the model was found to be wearing fake lashes. In July, the Advertising Standards Authority banned two L'Oreal print ads featuring airbrushed versions of Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington. The move was hailed as a socially responsible approach to regulating not only our advertisers but our unrealistic standards of beauty.

    In the U.S., beauty ads haven't been held under the same microscope until now. Will 2012 mark the year make-up ads come clean and if they do, what exactly will that look like? Taylor Swift with shorter eyelashes or no Taylor Swift at all?



     
    • Chloe7
      Chloe7  •  Riverview, Florida  •  4 months ago
      Of course ads should be more realistic in commercials. But, that will never happen. Apparently lies sell more products than the truth.
      • mindshift
        mindshift 4 months ago
        I'm trying to figure out why anyone thinks Taylor Swift needs airbrushing. She has the most perfect face and skin I've ever seen.

        If CoverGirl decided to enhance her eyelashes, how can that be Swift's fault. Just because a celebrity sells a license to use their name or photo for advertising does not mean the celebrity has total control over the product.
    • Billy Boy's Droogs
      Billy Boy's Droogs  •  4 months ago
      Crenshaw knows when he sees a big, huge, delicious-looking hamburger in an ad for a fast food joint, it ain't gonna be like that when he actually gets one.
      Crenshaw hopes folks realize the same thing about these Covergirls. Womenfolk don't really look like that.
    • Mickey
      Mickey  •  Hinesville, Georgia  •  4 months ago
      Lol, I can see it now in fine print "silicone has been added to breasts for fuller appearance", right like they're gonna announce that the model has had a boob job or anything else to make her seem more attractive for the ad.
    • Joeysue
      Joeysue  •  Freeport, Illinois  •  4 months ago
      Just a though. . . Taylor did not hold the mouse to retouch the photos. . She should not be on the chopping block for this, the ad company should
    • Tiffany
      Tiffany  •  Southfield, Michigan  •  4 months ago
      its sad for the little girls of the world and adults that dont have perfect skin or the longest eyelashes ...no wonder self esteem for youeng women is so low ..look what they have to compare themselves too :(
      • Philip
        Philip 4 months ago
        Dont be hating Tiff im sure you have a good personality.
    • Kosmo
      Kosmo  •  Los Angeles, California  •  4 months ago
      This is something new? Wake up people, this has been going on since cameras, tv and film were invented!
      • dannyj
        dannyj 4 months ago
        So true.
      • dannyj
        dannyj 4 months ago
        She's still pretty though!
    • JonniStix
      JonniStix  •  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma  •  4 months ago
      She's still fine as goose down. It's not her fault the post production team took "liberties" with the photos they now own through payment of production options."
    • Ricky Rey
      Ricky Rey  •  Monacillo, Puerto Rico  •  4 months ago
      Ad industry... Liars.. Remember Pampers' ads, they always absorbs better than the predecessor version. At that rate it should be sucking babies into oblivion... lol
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Richardson, Texas  •  4 months ago
      I was in my twenties before I realized that "Brand X" shampoo didn't make your hair look like the model; but rather the model had a great head of hair to begin with, and the ad people had chosen her to sell their shampoo!
      • :)
        :) 4 months ago
        wow your dumb
    • Linda
      Linda  •  Baton Rouge, Louisiana  •  4 months ago
      All mascara ads are fake they all have false eyelashes on .cant fool me.!
    • Brando
      Brando  •  Hampton, Virginia  •  4 months ago
      Some people are so worried over young girls seeing the unrealistic vision of what a woman is supposed to look like. They should be more worried about the more unrealistic reality shows their girls are watching.
    • mer
      mer  •  Richardson, Texas  •  4 months ago
      So true, Carroll! I remember looking at DQ ads and other fast food burgers with this big beautiful piece of lettuce peeking out the side and cheese dripping down. Then one gets the burger and the pityful lettuce is shredded and cheese is hard to find because it's such a thin slice!!...and also ads of big, thick slices of tomato when in reality they must be sliced with a laser!
    • Priscilla
      Priscilla  •  Denver, Colorado  •  4 months ago
      Ads don't "claim", they imply. I have never seen an ad that states that you will look like the model. They use images so we can associate their products with appealing images.
      Look at the car ads. They show rugged cars driving on open plains; a sign of freedom. That is an absolute contradiction for most since they will be stuck for the next 5 or 6 years paying it off...
    • Mitch
      Mitch  •  Fairborn, Ohio  •  4 months ago
      Ban the falsies and the air brush. Find pretty girls and make them wear your stuff. And if you are selling off the rack clothes, no tailoring or taping or altering the fit of the garment you put on the model. It didn't use to be so important, you would try something on or get a sample before buying it. Now samples are hard to come by and, often, you order things online. We need the advertisements to be authentic. The other option is to require "catalog" type photos to be authentic and provided by every retailer in a manner that ensures the customer will see it when ordering. I also think any clothing marketed to plus sized models should be required to be modeled by plus sized women. It is sad that women and girls beat themselves up for looking awful in a dress marketed to them but shown on a size 0 model. Kudos to companies like Lane Bryant that use a plus sized model for plus sized clothes!
      • Jessica Moore
        Jessica Moore 4 months ago
        I always complain that companies use size "0" models to showcase their plus sized clothing. Its an advertising trick to make people think that they are going to look that size when they wear that brand of clothing. I think it is ridiculous. I will tell you that after I see a tiny model wearing a swimsuit or some lingerie that I was interested in, I don't even want to get it anymore, because I know that I will never look as good as that skinny mini. I would be more apt to buy something if I could see the way the clothing is really going to work on a heavier woman. I need to see how my curves are going to look, and if it really "slims" down my waist line, etc. If a heavier woman is wearing it, I can say to myself, Ok, she looks nice in that, I'll look nice in that! Kudos, for pointing that out, Mitch.
      • MG
        MG 4 months ago
        Mitch - Lane Bryant didn't, FOR YEARS, use appropriately sized models. When called on the phone to complain, they insisted that the customers themselves said they didn't want to see the clothes on large-sized women. Testimony from the wife, who quit shopping from them for that very reason, for the duration.

        Even now, most of the so-called "plus size" models are a size 10 or 12, sizes that a majority of U.S. women would have to diet to fit into.
    • harriet33
      harriet33  •  Portland, Maine  •  4 months ago
      It has always bothered me that advertisers are able to misrepresent their products. I can not count how many times I have purchased something that did not even come close to what it claimed. Its like taking a match and burning your money...it is plain wrong!
    • LibertyChick
      LibertyChick  •  4 months ago
      It's craziness. How long will women put up with this nonsense? Women should demand truth in advertising - and in fashion. No air brushing or photoshopping. Life is complicated enough without having to constantly worry about how many wrinkles, fuller lashes, a size 0 dress, breast implants and all that other crap. It adds undue stress on our already stressful lives, and the message it sends to our kids drives them to eating disorders they will never recover from. On top of that - entirely too much advertising and entertainment sexulizes minors. When will women stand up and say that enough is enough?
    • Ashley
      Ashley  •  Orlando, Florida  •  4 months ago
      What I don't understand is why there is so much hype surrounding the models and celebrities used for these ads. None of them (in real life) are as "beautiful" as the cameras make them seem. Most of them did not achieve the looks they have today without some sort of surgical or photo enhancement. I would like to see the conncept of beauty changed up. Who is to say that to be skinny means you are beautiful? Why not have females of average weight and appearance model their make up to show the real effect of the product. When the average female sees these ads they do not look at the graphics and say, "Look at that lip color and how moisturized her lips look". The majority of those females actually think, "Hey I will buy that lipstick if it will bring me closer to looking like her". The people's idea of beauty has been distorted by airbrushes, photoshops, botox, surgeries, false eye lashes, ridiculous diets, and hair extensions.
    • wileecoyote
      wileecoyote  •  Doylestown, Pennsylvania  •  4 months ago
      yea! Greyhound bus lines should be made tpost true pictures of it's greyhound busline mentality passengers. Shoot, then no one would ride! what has 100 legs and 40 teeth? A greyhound bus partly full.
    • Madashello
      Madashello  •  Flint, Michigan  •  4 months ago
      I always thought these were outrageous and bordered on false advertising. Especially the ones that claim the use of their facial wash/cleansing products will give you a flawless, perfect, porcelain perfect complexion. Another is the food product ads like eating cereals with more whole grain helping you to lose weight. The key word here is - helping. It doesn't mention that you have to follow an additional strict diet regime.
    • TONY
      TONY  •  4 months ago
      Women are dumb for buying that greasy fake crap and putting it on ! Besides, aren't women guilty of the same offense by using makeup to hide the truth of what they really look like ??? BE NATURAL WOMEN CAUSE MEN HATE KISSING THAT CRAP !!!
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