We don't know whether to applaud or scold the U.K. for banning makeup ads there, featuring actress Julia Roberts and model Christy Turlington.
A British watchdog group, the Advertising Standards Authority, claims that L'Oreal cosmetics giant went TOO far in air-brushing the images of both Julia and Christy in their respective ad campaigns for Lancome and Maybelline. L'Oreal owns both brands.
This statement came after from Jo Swinson, British politician:
"Pictures of flawless skin and super-slim bodies are all around but they don't reflect reality. Excessive airbrushing and digital manipulation techniques have become the norm but both Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts are naturally beautiful women who don't need retouching to look great. This ban sends a powerful message to advertisers - let's get back to reality."
Okay, very fair statement, but let's also get REAL about the whole advertising industry......Face it, people....just about everything under the sun gets air-brushing. Suddenly, dark undereye circles disappear, along with moles, wrinkles, uneven skintone, uneven hairlines, and even pores. And don't even get us started about body air-brushing. Suddenly,this actress has longer, slimmer legs, and so forth.
But why just pick on poor Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington?!
Attack the entire modeling/advertising business. You can't tell us for certain, who has been air-brushed and who has not, and to what extent the air-brushing has gone on. It ain't just Julia and Christy being digitally enhanced. Both gorgeous celebrities are over 40-years-old, and yet, young models are also air-brushed to impossible perfection.
By now, most of us recognize that the glossy, beautiful ads in magazines and on billboards have been altered in some way. And most of us have come to realize, that even great-looking famous people are not perfect. But we have also become a youth-obsessed culture who now expects forehead wrinkles to be zapped by Botox, or a sagging bosom to be lifted by breast enhancement surgery, and so on.
We expect our favorite celebrities to appear flawless. It's a shame, and it will take more than a few outcries by a group in the U.K. to try and reverse the beauty standards we have created in the 21st Century.
The real shame is for our young daughters who are growing up these days around such impossible beauty expectations.
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