Taylor Swift CoverGirl Ad Pulled for Excessive Photo Shopping, False Claims
CoverGirl pulled a mascara advertisement featuring Taylor Swift after it was banned by British advertising watchdogs due to excessive photo shopping.
According to E! News online, the watchdog group, National Advertising Division, is requesting that Procter and Gamble, which owns the brand, prove the ad’s claim that the mascara has two times more volume than bare lashes and is 20 percent lighter than the most expensive brands of mascara.
The division was created to be the ad industry's self-regulatory body and reviews claims made in national advertisements. On the bottom of Swift’s ad, fine print reads, “lashes [were] enhanced in post production.”
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The Director of NAD, 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 ‘OK, not really.’”
NAD issued a statement, saying, " the Procter & Gamble Company acted properly in discontinuing superior performance claims made in print advertising by the company for its CoverGirl NatureLuxe Mousse Mascara."
The company also bans advertisements that have false or inappropriate implications. According to MSNBC.com, a Maybelline anti-aging product featuring Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts was banned this summer for “digitally retouching” their skin.
Last month, the British Advertising Standards Authority banned a Miu Miu advertisement which featured 15-year-old True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld “depicted… in an unsafe position.” In the ad, Steinfeld is photographed crying while atop a set of empty train tracks.
Also banned this year by a British watchdog group Advertising Standards Authority was a lingerie ad by Marks & Spencer, which showcased a model wearing a bra and panties. The Telegraph reported that the model was sitting on a bed with her legs spread apart and her back arched, which implied sex, which was inappropriate as the ad is featured on city buses.
The ad was officially banned by the ASA after receiving 15 complaints.
