End of False Advertising?

   

            How many times have we been watching TV and been bombarded by the lights, camera and action of a major cosmetics commercial? I myself would say way too many times. Most of the time we are able to tell if the product really does what it says it will do and we can tell  how much exaggeration goes into the advertising of the product. But now let us ask this: How many times do we hear or see an ad for a major cosmetics company that not only exaggerates, but then flat out admits to exaggerating? Hopefully the answer is never because they should know better than to test the National Advertising Division.

            For those of you who do not know the National Advertising Division (NAD) reviews factual claims made in national advertisements and offer alternative dispute options for advertisers. That being said let us talk about the ad that was reviewed by NAD and was eventually pulled by them as well.

            In the ad the ever popular often envied country singer Taylor Swift is seen promoting Cover Girl’s Natureluxe mascara. Swift is the official spokesperson for all of their Natureluxe products, so you hav probably seen other commercials for these products by her. The ad is not much different from other mascara ads. Swift offers various poses towards the camera and different angles of her lashes she claims that the mascara will volumize your lashes without weighing them down like most mascaras do because it has a touch of beeswax in it. The ad is only about fifteen seconds long and was aired in December of 2011. The same ad also appeared in Cosmopolitan, People, Allure and Vogue.

 

             The ad very obviously uses famous person testimonial, without Swift  in this ad this mascara would have just been another drug store brand mascara especially because as mascara ads go this one isn’t very original or new and it is obvious that Swift is only there to try to make this ho-hum mascara stand out from the others. The only reason that anybody remembers this particular mascara is because of the problems it had with NAD. After the product aired its advertisements they were all pulled very quickly. Normally Covergirl does not have problems like these and having owned a few of their products I can confidentally say they usually deliver on their claims.

            In very, very small print in both the magazine ad and the TV commercial it states that in fact, Swifts lashes are not even real but instead they are photo shopped to look longer, and fuller and that in fact the mascara doesn’t do what it says it will do at all. After this ad was pulled I think it is safe to say that I nor any person that saw that this ad was pulled ever bought that mascara, or even gave a second thought to buying that mascara.

            It is definitely a rookie mistake I feel, and sets the tone for the rest of the products they sell. How can we trust their brand if they throw things like this out? I wasn't thinking of buying this product before and I definitely will not now. Fromt his assignment I think I re-learned something that I already knew and that is that you cannot believe everything you hear.