Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York

The Advertising Standards Authority, a British watchdog group, has taken up issue with L’Oreal Paris over their Telescopic Mascara ads featuring Penelope Cruz. The group claims that the advertisements are misleading to consumers for a number of reasons, one of which is because Cruz is wearing fake lashes.

When I read this news story, two things came to mind; One: It is obvious that there were “special effects” for those ads to reinforce the idea that L’Oreal Paris Telescopic Mascara will give you the appearance of longer lashes and I believe that is true of most ads and most consumers understand this. Two: Has exaggeration of a product’s claims in advertisements become so commonplace that we know there is only a small nugget of truth when a print and commercial ad is presented to us? For so long, “the product pitch” has always had an inkling of exaggeration, which is why “As seen on TV” products and infomercials that claimed a miracle product for only $19.99 was looked at with pure skepticism. Exaggerated product claims have always been around, it just seems more prevalent now and more accepted.

I believe that once that exaggeration crossed over from infomercials to more mainstream products, it became difficult for consumers to be able to discern fact from fiction. Especially when a product claims to be better than Botox for a few hundred dollars--because it is high priced, it must be true, right? Subconsciously we all know that there will be some exaggeration to a product, but when fact is mixed with fiction, it can be confusing. For many beauty consumers, with the help of people like Paula Begoun and Dove exposing industry truths with their Campaign For Real Beauty, consumers are becoming savvier to this practice. Yet, companies still continue to make boisterous claims and work them into their ads.

I guess I’m left wondering when we’ll get back to the days when fact was fact and fiction was a book you found in the library. What are your thoughts on this?