I don’t know if you remember this, but a while ago in 2007, L’Oreal was taken to task for using false eyelashes in their Telescopic mascara ads featuring Penelope Cruz (source). The Advertising Standards Authority then directed L’Oreal to add a disclaimer to future ads whenever models are shown wearing false lashes.
I don’t know if they do (I have never seen any disclaimers by any company) but I personally have not seen any cosmetic brand NOT use false lashes or digitally enhanced lashes in their mascara advertisements.
Perhaps these days they don’t use false lashes anymore. These days, there is photoshop or digital enhancement so falsies aren’t necessary. Still, you’d have to be pretty naive to believe that any mascara will be able to give you long lush lashes to mimic false lashes in just one application, right?
The most any mascara can promise is volume and perhaps some lengthening with fibres that stick to your lashes to make them “appear” longer.
Personally, I’m not taken in by mascara advertisements because I hold no illusions about my lashes and how much more enhanced they can be. Also, no lashes can ever look as shiny, long and sleek as they do in the ads and I’m not bugged by the use of “false lashes” or “digitally enhanced lashes”. I don’t proclaim to support the actions of perceived “false advertising” but I do understand that there is a certain exaggerated claim in ads to sell us consumers something. There is an element of exaggeration in every product or advertisement for anything.
What we are really being sold is “hope”. We are sold the “hope” that the product will indeed give us longer, lusher lashes with more volume. I like to take this element of “hope” with a pinch of salt. If it works for me, great. If it doesn’t, NEXT! But then, I’m a sceptic – I view everything with suspicion 🙂
How about you? Does the use of false lashes or digitally enhanced lashes in mascara ads bug you; or are you taken in by the ads and that the mascara featured can do everything it claims?
Thanks to Yani for prompting this thought 🙂
Paris B
i am always sceptic in ANY advertisements i see because being in the industry myself, i know how far any ‘truth’ can stretch…
one of the reason why i read you instead of buying those magazines on the stands 🙂
typo… ‘reasons’…
Aww thanks for the vote of confidence! But like you, I don’t quite get swayed by the ads and i prefer to see actual people pictures 🙂
Personally, it does bother me a bit, but I’m glad to see the “disclaimer” line on L’Oreal ad down here, and you’re right, other brands do not have the Disclaimer note and we can all see its falsies or digitally enhanced…it bothers me a bit because I know a lot of girls out there are not aware and would probably believe that their lashes could go THAT long! Just me 🙂
Hmm I’ll have to scrutinize our ads here for “disclaimers” 😉 I do get your point. There will always be people who are swayed by what they see in the ads. But sometimes to expect a miracle is just mind boggling!
No, I don’t believe ads like these and slimming ones. So awfully photoshopped. I think reviews and real images by users like ourselves are so much more reliable. =)
How about shampoo ads? Same thing LOL I am always convinced they are wearing a wig else how do we get every shampoo out there giving you bright shiny hair?
haha, I find it impossible to believe that comb fall through thing! Nevertheless, when I had rebonded hair, I just had to try everything that says you will get straight and non-kinky hair. So ad or no ad didn’t make a difference, I would still buy. Now that my hair is curled, I have no need for THE ultimate straight, smooth and anti-frizz shampoo. As long as a shampoo cleans, don’t dry my hair out and make it drop, I can use it.
You’re most welcome, Paris!
I think we’re all a little more sceptical now, and maybe jaded? But I find it amazing how far the truth is stretched in advertising nowadays – whether in the tagline, or digitally enhanced images. So it’s good to know that in some countries, beauty ads are being monitored and getting their wrists “slapped”.
Sadly I must agree with you – I am jaded now which is really a pity. I think they are just more careful with their words in advertisements these days. If they can stretch the truth without making false claims, they will. Sometimes, its the way things are worded – not quite telling you its longer yet telling you its longer (than their other mascara) LOL
I don’t fall for it, and I personally know what magic they can do on Photoshop. But still, I’d like to challenge cosmetic companies to run totally untouched-up ads for mascara. I mean, c’mon, show me what your mascara can REALLY do! 😀
Haha… next thing you know, no mascara sells because it isn’t as impressive in real life! LOL 😉
actually it bothers me alot… it’s like giving us false hope that our lashes will turned out looking like in their ads when that’s usually not the case 🙁
Thats true. Especially when its a much hyped about mascara. We all want long lush lashes (if we don’t have them naturally) so perhaps if we already have long lush lashes, it might be alright but the rest of us with short lashes are always feeling a little “conned” 🙂
Not at all. I mean, there has to be a dumb sucker who falls for those ads (sorry, I was making a point), and they are having HOPE on cashing on them. And yes, to not be said suckers, we have to have a degree of realism regarding our own lashes.
I don’t think people who do fall for the ads are suckers in that sense. They are just buying into the hope and hype. After all, that’s pretty much what all advertisements sell us.
Im not bothered with the fact that they use false lashes in their ads. After all, its just an advertisement and without false lashes, natural lashes just don’t show up as much in photos. I thought we all should be clear by now that ads are just ads and many brands use lash inserts as part of their ads. :p
I dun trust those mascara ads as well..
Seems like all the advertisement on beauty products by the model especially in tv and magazines are so fake !! Sometimes I was flipping the magazines and wondering SURE or NOT ? Well.. we girls are so vain still fall to the beauty trapped, and I don’t really believe in products works until i read blog review with pictures about it !
Yep ads are there to sell a product. In many ways they stretch the truth a lot
I’m certainly not gullible enough to believe the “visual claim” made by such ads so in that sense it doesn’t bother me. But it does annoy me in that it makes the model look horrendous. I hate the extremes that “digital enhancement” has been taken to these days.
Yes! Especially when they remove a hip like that for Demi Moore recently 😀
Or inadvertently amputated Emma Watson’s leg O.o
Personally, I never believe any ads cos they all make exaggerate claims and stretch the truth. And the women that appear in these ads are usually so fake that I don’t feel the desire to look like them. I mean, some mascaras ads show lashes that reach your eyebrows or look like thick triangles and I certainly don’t wanna look like that. What bothers me though is that unfortunately there are lots of people, esp young girls, that seem to fall for such fake claims so it’s good that some brands are finally including disclaimers in their ads.
Besides, I don’t think that fake or digitally enhanced lashes (or anything else for that matter) in ads are doing the products any favour cos if brands need to use them in the first place that tells me that their products mustn’t be that good (or just not as good as claimed) afterall.
That’s true too. Yet the airbrushing, photoshopping and fake lashes continue – I guess perhaps the brands think that its working?
I’m against enhancements via things like Photoshope, or fake lashes (unless that’s what you are advertising), in any ad. I want to see what real women/men look like with a product on, not what a creative computer person can do, or what a product that was also added to that same area can do. Personally, I feel that it is false advertising, and am often less likely to buy the product if the image is the main focus of the ad (give me words any day).
So i guess having blogs around is a good thing 😉
I love false eye lashes.. and always will…
Yes, it does bother me!!!
I worked in advertising for many years and never knowingly made a false representation of a product. Most products have at least one benefit over competitors, whether that’s quality, availability, value, or what have you. Advertising is meant to promote the product’s benefits. …But they have to be real benefits, or it’s all a con game.
When an advertiser portrays the alleged benefits of a mascara product via digital enhancement and/or the use of false eyelashes, it’s not only dishonest, it screams to the world, “This product can’t do this, or we wouldn’t need to use CGI, Photoshop, or fake lashes.”
As soon as I see an indication the eyelashes in a mascara ad are not real, that product is dead to me. I shudder to think there are people who can’t differentiate between real and “enhanced” lashes. The thing is, should the public have to become experts? Wouldn’t it be easier (and more accurate) to make a law that requires companies selling mascara to only represent what the product can actually do? Go ahead… Hire models with naturally long, thick, dark lashes. Do their hair and make-up perfectly. Perfect their hair and make-up in post. Perfect the lighting and photographic filters. Put the model in posh surroundings. But don’t augment the lashes in a freaking mascara ad!