British ASA bans L'Oreal campaigns for excessive airbrushing

By Reid Jermyn. First published 28 July on AdNews.

Two separate advertising campaigns featuring supermodel Christy Turlington and actress Julia Roberts have been banned in Britain for being overly airbrushed.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) chose to pull the Maybelline and Lancome campaigns after complaints were lodged by British Liberal MP Jo Swinson.

The ASA stated on its website that the two magazine advertisements did not accurately represent what Maybelline's The Eraser and Lancome's Teint Miracle foundations could achieve.

L'Oreal owns both Maybelline and Lancome.

The advertisements were not to appear again in their current form, ASA said.

The Maybelline advertisement showed part of Turlington’s face uncovered, with the other part covered by the foundation to illustrate the difference.

L'Oreal told the ASA that, "despite the fact post-production techniques had been used, the image accurately illustrated the results the product could achieve".

They even provided the ASA with images of Turlington at public events.

But the ASA found that the information provided by L'Oreal was not sufficient to show that the before and after images were an accurate representation of what the product could achieve.

Lancome told the ASA that photographs of Roberts were an "aspirational" picture of what could be achieved when a customer used its product.

But the cosmetics company could not supply images of Roberts before the make-up was applied due to contractual obligations.

It's uncertin whether L'Oreal will run either campaign outside of Britain.