Tag Archives: ASA

Advertising watchdog upholds Jo Swinson MP’s complaints about overly airbrushed ads

By Helen Duffett | Published 27th July 2011 - 8:53 am

The Guardian reports:

L’Oréal has been forced to pull ad campaigns featuring Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington, after the advertising watchdog upheld complaints by Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson that the images were overly airbrushed.

Swinson, who has waged a long-running campaign against “overly perfected and unrealistic images” of women in adverts, lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority about the magazine campaigns for L’Oréal-owned brands Lancôme and Maybelline. The ASA ruled that both ads breached the advertising standards code for exaggeration and being misleading and banned them from future publication.

L’Oréal’s two-page ad featuring Roberts, who is

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Jo Swinson MP writes: Making inroads into our looks-obsessed culture

By Jo Swinson MP | Published 21st July 2011 - 9:16 am

Last year, Lynne Featherstone MP and I launched the Campaign for Body Confidence. Since then, we have been raising the profile of the urgent need to address increasing body dissatisfaction in the UK. Everyone should be able, whatever their size, shape, age or skin colour, to feel good about their body.

The bombardment of super-skinny flawless models advertising everything from face cream to cars is puts an overwhelming pressure on women, men and children to conform to impossible and unrealistic beauty ‘ideals’. This is damaging our sense of wellbeing and leading to increasing unhappiness, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression and eating …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 13 Comments

ASA bans ‘misleading’ Twiggy advert

By Mark Pack | Published 16th December 2009 - 2:20 pm

From a party press release:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against an Olay advert containing a heavily airbrushed image of the model Twiggy on the grounds that it was misleading following a campaign led by the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats have called for airbrushed ads to be clearly labelled, and for airbrushing to be banned in adverts aimed at children.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, who has led the campaign, said:

“I hope this decision marks the first step in really getting airbrushing in advertising under control.

“If advertisers think that someone as beautiful as Twiggy needs to be so heavily airbrushed, …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , | 10 Comments

Academics say airbrushed images do harm girls and boys

By Helen Duffett | Published 9th November 2009 - 2:48 pm

A group of 44 academics is lobbying the Advertising Standards Authority to change the rules on ads featuring airbrushed models, following the publication of a research paper which says that such ads encourage eating disorders and self-harm.

The paper was organised by the Liberal Democrats as part of their Real Women campaign, which calls for a ban on airbrushed advertising images aimed at children, and for ads aimed at adults to carry a disclaimer.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , | 12 Comments