No surprise that the Advertising Standards Authority has banned another beauty ad – this time Black Swan Actress Natalie Portman modelling Christian Dior’s mascara, on account of her eyelashes being airbrushed to artificial perfection.
Much more interesting is the fact that the complainant is not some earnest advocate of “real beauty” and, er, truth in advertising, but Dior’s deadly rival in the cosmetics business, L’Oréal.
Pretty rich, all things considered: as a manipulator of the truth, L’Oréal takes some beating. Readers of this blog will recall the case of Cheryl Cole’s false locks, and Beyoncé’s preternaturally “latte” skin tint. They may also have noted a series of ASA bans over the last year or two affecting L’Oréal ads featuring Rachel Weisz, Christy Turlington, Julia Roberts and Penelope Cruz: in fact, just about every female brand ambassador L’Oréal has ever used. Although, come to think of it, no one, so far as I know, has yet got round to checking the hair-roots of Andie MacDowell, L’Oréal’s recruiting sergeant in the eternal war against the Greys, to see whether it’s actually a wig she is wearing.
Apologists for L’Oréal will no doubt tell their critics to get real: they are merely working in a long and dishonourable tradition of deception. Perfect beauty is by definition impossible to attain and when women strive for it, they don’t want it represented by a warts-and-all model but by a heavenly idealisation.
Nevertheless, L’Oréal’s hypocritical assault on Dior plumbs new depths of cynicism. Compared with its own systematic distortion of visual reality, Dior’s misdemeanour – which consisted of photoshopping La Portman’s individual lashes – is a mere peccadillo.
Playing Goody Two-Shoes may yet boomerang upon L’Oréal. Unless it really has turned over a new leaf, which I doubt.
