You mean that skin cream won’t make me look 10 years younger?

Cosmetics and skin cream companies have long sold hope in a bottle.  And while I have recently found myself pondering whether or not anti-aging creams work, and if so how, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that they really did.

Now after years of ignoring cosmetic claims, probably because they thought we were all smart enough to realize using these products was not going to turn us into supermodels, the FDA has fired a warning shot at Lancome.  Apparently they have gone a step too far with claims like “boosts the activity of genes and stimulates the production of youth proteins,” which the agency perceives to be a drug claim.  (Forbes, 2012)

Well.  It’s a start.  Last year the U.K. banned a couple of L’Oreal ads featuring Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington for overuse of photoshop retouching.  And before that, there was the mascara ad featuring Eva Longoria wearing false eyelashes.  It certainly made me wonder why the U.S. wasn’t taking a closer look at these ads. (Gibson, 2011)

But let’s take a moment to consider how sad is it that even these extraordinary women need help to look the way they do in the media.  I think it’s time to take another look at Dove’s Evolution ad, and pay a little more attention to misleading beauty product claims.  Don’t you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c87AC4Le5Y&feature=fvst

Forbes, T. (2012, September 12)  FDA Crackdown On Lancome Claims Signals Shift.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved September 12, 2012, from

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/182841/fda-crackdown-on-lancome-claims-signals-shift.html

Gibson, M. (2011, July 28)  U.K. Bans Two Retouched Makeup Ads For Being ‘Misleading’. time.com.  Retrieved September 12, 2012, from

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/28/u-k-bans-two-retouched-makeup-ads-for-being-misleading/