So here I am, teeheeing reading this news in NYTs Media Decoder this past weekend. The person who got behind this banning photoshopped images in magazines is Jo Swinson also the co-founder of The Campaign for Body Confidence.

And so, the impossible seems to have happened. In U.K., two L’Oreal foundation ads, one for Maybeline’s The Eraser and the other for Lancome Teint Miracle were recently banned. Why? For putting out airbrushed images of women.

British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have said enough is enough, and are cracking down on companies that are using airbrushing and other post-production techniques in their Advertising.

According to the Article, the Authority is an independent consumer watchdog group that monitors misleading advertising and consumer protection laws. The chief complaint is that that digital technology is being used to create misleading ads.

L’Oreal confirmed to the ASA that the ad was modified to “lighten the skin, clean up make-up, reduce dark shadows and shading around the eyes, smooth the lips and darken the eyebrows.” After all that, they started working away the wrinkles on Photoshop. They said they believed they hadn’t crossed the line.

Errr… ummm… Ooookay!!

There were several other gems I found while reading through articles on the same topic.

The winning entry from Yahoo’s Shine: The ASA requested a before shot to illustrate just how much the ad was digitally manipulated, but unfortunately Roberts’ contract stipulates that no un-airbrushed shots can be released.

Right now, she’s working on making the case in “Parliament for Body image education in schools being tied into Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) classes, to give children the confidence to accept their bodies as they are.”

Good luck, Ms. Swinson. More power to you while we ponder on this: How far will we, as a culture, go to sell beauty? To allow it? To consume it in our images?

Read the full article in British Authority Bans Two Ads by L’Oreal by Tanzina Vega

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