L'Oreal Commercial Banned Over Fake Eyelashes
Thursday July 26, 2007
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) says L'Oreal's "Telescopic" mascara commercial misleads customers and ruled the ad and press campaign be shelved. The commercial features actress Penelope Cruz saying, "Imagine, lashes that could reach for the stars" and claims that the mascara can make your eyelashes "60 percent longer."
The ASA says L'Oreal needs to make it clear in future ads when a model is wearing fake eyelashes. L'Oreal says using fake eyelashes in commercials is an industry trick that has been used for years but has agreed to comply.
L'Oreal and the ASA Have Disagreed Before
This isn't the first time the ASA has come down on L'Oreal for its advertising. In 2005, the two tangled over a commercial starring Claudia Schiffer with claims for a wrinkle cream to "rapidly reduce wrinkles." Another L'Oreal cream ad that made the claim that the product "visibly reduces the appearance of cellulite" came under fire too.
The ASA said neither product had enough scientific evidence to back the promises. L'Oreal disagreed with the ASA's findings but said it would agree to follow its recommendations in the future.
- Do Ads Make Too Many False Promises? Share Your Opinion
The ASA says L'Oreal needs to make it clear in future ads when a model is wearing fake eyelashes. L'Oreal says using fake eyelashes in commercials is an industry trick that has been used for years but has agreed to comply.
L'Oreal and the ASA Have Disagreed Before
This isn't the first time the ASA has come down on L'Oreal for its advertising. In 2005, the two tangled over a commercial starring Claudia Schiffer with claims for a wrinkle cream to "rapidly reduce wrinkles." Another L'Oreal cream ad that made the claim that the product "visibly reduces the appearance of cellulite" came under fire too.
The ASA said neither product had enough scientific evidence to back the promises. L'Oreal disagreed with the ASA's findings but said it would agree to follow its recommendations in the future.
Comments
Ads always make false promises and product claims. You never know when something actually delivers what the company is claiming! I especially hate the mascara commercials because it is obvious that the women are wearing false eyelashes in all of them. The same with shampoo and hair product commercials. You can always tell when the women are wearing extensions or when the hair has been treated professionally. The worst culprits are the diet pill and exercise machine infomercials. They should just be banned all together!
The most annoying adverts are those which blatantly lie about the product and try to support it with pseudo-science and cod psychology. For instance, we have all these ‘anti-wrinkle’ cream adverts claiming at times, that they ‘work as well as cosmetic surgery’ it’s ‘botox in a box!’ and they have a lot of fancy numbers and statistics to ’support this’. Fact is - a lot of it is made up. They invent things such as ‘an A Zone’ which is apparantly more prone to wrinkles than other areas - it makes women anxious to things they never thought about before. Such as shame how these big cosmetic industries try to sound as if they are providing a service - a cure for all of our various illnesses and visual ‘flaws’ - when really they are investing on women’s insecurities.