Would You Sue If a Beauty Product Doesn't Live Up to Its Claims?
I'm as hopeful as the next starting-to-wrinkle gal when it comes to anti-aging products. I flip through fashion magazines and make a list of the stuff I need to buy -- products that promise to give me the flawless complexion of my 20s. Then, I high-tail it to CVS -- or Nordstrom's, if I'm feeling flush -- and hand over my hard-earned cash for that eye cream that'll stop my crow's feet from deepening or the serum that'll lighten my sunspots.
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But here's the thing: As much hope as I have when I tote these products home and eagerly smear them onto my aging face, I know deep down that they're not going to do all that their ads -- and even the beauty editors who swear by them -- say they will.
Why? Because I like to consider myself an intelligent consumer. I know some photographer's assistant has photoshopped the hell out of Ellen Degeneres' face to make the 54-year-old look 35, and I know the beauty editor who says it's her "super-duper fave" has been coerced into saying so by her boss, who's making a sweet commission on that fifty-thousand dollar ad that appears just a couple pages before the editor's glowing review. Is it wrong? Sure. But admit it: You know how these things work, too.
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So, a lawsuit against Olay Regenerist's Anti-Aging Eye Roller has me rolling my eyes. Lorette Perez-Pirio of Los Angeles claimed that magazine and Internet ads and product labels for Olay's Anti-Aging Eye Roller and Regenerating Eye Cream "misrepresent the effects and purported benefits of the products." Irate that the eye roller wasn't a miracle in a bottle, Perez-Pirio formed a class action suit, alleging that Olay's parent company, Proctor and Gamble, is aware that its products "do not possess the requisite competent and reliable scientific evidence to substantiate their bold claims."
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Look, I'm all for us fighting the man and making those slick marketers squirm. But come on, people, let's be realistic here. As we get older, there's a certain degree to which our skin is going to sag, wrinkle, get duller, and generally morph into something less luminous than it used to be. And blaming false advertising for how much that hard, cold truth sucks is futile.
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