Dior have been stopped in their tracks as their new advert is banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after L’Oréal challenged whether the effects of the product had been exaggerated (Pot, kettle, black, anyone?)
It seems that Dior had in fact photo-shopped Natalie Portman to within an inch of her life in order to produce the perfect lashes. However they did hit back at claims by saying they have received no customer complaints surrounding the ad and state that they only retouched the image to “separate/increase the length and curve of a number of her lashes and to replace/fill a number of missing or damaged lashes, for a more stylised, uniform and tidy effect”.
The question then is does the post-production re-touching actually do what they are claiming to be the mascara?
The fact of the matter is we all know that the effects of mascara are limited. It can lengthen, thicken and curve eyelashes… to an extent. However, I don’t expect that a coating of mascara will make me look like Cheryl Cole (fake, by the way.)
So why is it that models can wear clothes and make them look so great that we want them, even though we know they won’t look like that on us; but when it’s a beauty product, it’s not allowed? If I saw any Plain Jane with slightly spidery eyelashes, I wouldn’t be buying that mascara. The whole point is to make the product as appealing as possible, and they did that, so what’s the problem?
The only problem for me is that they’re defending it. Dior representatives have claimed that they “did not consider that the post-production techniques went beyond the likely consumer expectations of what was achievable using the product”. That’s a lie. And that’s what I don’t appreciate. I’d much prefer them to stand their ground and say “She’s wearing the mascara, she looks amazing. Don’t you want to buy that mascara?”
The thing to remember is that an exaggeration is not the same as a lie. The end product is an exaggeration of what the mascara does; but the mascara still does that. Don’t all adverts exaggerate? Do price comparison sites save all customers money? Perhaps some, but certainly not all. Does Lynx make girls go weak at the knees? The question is do girls even know what Lynx smells like? I don’t.
What the ASA should have done is made Dior put a disclaimer on the ad. A bit of small print that nobody will read anyway (and even if they do, probably won’t care about) stating that the image has been edited post-production.
There are definitely more pressing issues than this in the world of advertising standards…
Via Vogue
