The Advertising Standards Authority are all over fishing out the unrealistic ads lately - news of more banned images just keeps coming and the latest victim is Rachel Weisz's advert for L'Oreal Paris' Revitalift Repair 10. Apparently it's been photoshopped!!
Apparently the ASA became suspicious when they noticed that Rachel looked too perfect (no!), and upon investigation found that L'Oreal had "substantially changed her complexion to make it appear smoother and more even" which in turn "misleadingly exaggerated the performance of the product". Photoshopping is still allowed on adverts, by the way, but not in a way that misrepresents the effect of the product it's advertising. As the coverlines on this ad made claims about the product's effectiveness at smoothing the skin and evening complexion, in this instance tampering with her skin violates the rules.
This crackdown in fake advertising is in part down to Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, who co-founded the Campaign for Body Confidence and has been submitting complaints to stop these images from being able to appear.
"The beauty and advertising industries need to stop ripping off consumers with dishonest images," she said. "There needs to be much more diversity in advertising - different skin colours, body shapes, sizes and ages. Studies show that people want to see more authenticity from brands. Images can be aspirational without being faked."