Can You Trust Before and After Photos in Cosmetic Adverts?

before and after cosmetic adverts

The short answer is no.  You knew that already didn’t you.  But thanks to a lawsuit between Estee Lauder and Swedish model Caroline Louise Forsling we now have proof.

Ms Forsling was hired to do a shoot, but didn’t realise that her image would be used in  a campaign aimed at women in their forties and fifties.  When she saw the result she was horrified to find that the image had been manipulated to make her look older than the 35 years she actually is.

While it is easy to sympathise with the model, whose looks and image are her living, it also reveals some pretty shady practice on the part of the ad agency that Lauder had hired.  The results portrayed are not the achieved by using the product.  She had never even used it.  All the photo demonstrates is the skill of whoever fired up the computer and poked the pixels.

I don’t think the people behind this have broken any law.  I am sure a company the size of Lauder will have lawyers who look after that kind of thing.  But it is still a pretty low way to sell your product.

I originally put up a link to the full ad with the image above in context.  It has subsequently been removed from the blog it was on.  It is no longer running on the original product site either.  Thanks to Josh for pointing it out.  If anyone can find it I would love to know where.  It looks like the lawyers have probably been doing a bit of googling so it may now be hard to fnd.




And here is the full story

http://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/Business-Financial/Model-sues-Estee-Lauder-over-anti-aging-ad-claims/?c=3IbIYnE9FT1I8zsd82h0cw%3D%3D&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BDaily

3 thoughts on “Can You Trust Before and After Photos in Cosmetic Adverts?”

  1. The only thing I may trust is an actual on the spot live review of anything that is being done on video and the person never leaves the camera while demonstrating anything. LIVE.

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