Memo to L'Oreal: We really aren't that dumb
Charlotte Howells sees double...
Oh, L'Oreal. I'm guessing you think that we won't notice that Scarlett Johansson (who by the way, looks great, even in shorts) has managed to strike the exact same pose several months apart, totally reworking her skin and hair colour in the bargain. She's pretty dedicated to promoting your new nude shade of lipgloss, eh? But here's the thing. We did notice. Yep, that's right, we have a memory, and - hard to believe this one, but...guess what L'Oreal - we do have a brain cell!
Contrary to what you evidently believe, we are clever enough to put two and two together and realise that you've employed a graphic wizard and coloured her in. We aren't three years old anymore, changing a few colours and using a different background isn't enough to fool us. And although there could have been a point where I wanted to try out your new nude sparkling lipgloss, be keen to, even. The revelation that you apparently think I'm dumb enough not to notice a chameleon-Scarlett when I see one, and the fact that she probably never wore your lipgloss in the first place, made me not so eager...
Deep down, I know that Scarlett Johansson isn't made beautiful by wearing a L'Oreal £4.99 lipgloss, I know that the ever-so-glossy sheen on her lips is too good to be true, that her skin tone is too even and radiant to ever be real...but I'm an optimist, and, naive as I might be, I so wanted to believe that she was at least wearing the lipgloss that she's trying to sell. That although the image was digitally enhanced, when the original image was taken, she was wearing something resembling the advertised product.
I know, I know, beauty adverts aren't exactly renowned for their truthfulness. It's been a long time since I've seen a mascara advert which gave a truthful depiction of the product's effect, I'll admit. But this kind of blatant digital manipulation just further highlights how far away advertising images are from reality. To the point that this clearly isn't reality, at all. The product itself isn't even involved. Just a computer and perhaps a lonely man who's best friends with his mouse.
So Scarlett Johansson probably has a busy schedule, granted. She might not have had time to re-shoot the ads just for a new shade. But surely they took more than one picture the first time round? There must have been something, anything, else they could do, rather than this insulting rehash. It's almost like they're suggesting the real Scarlett isn't good enough - only her sanitized, digitized version will do.
Must try harder, L'Oreal. You see women these days, they're intelligent. Some of them even have degrees, jobs, thoughts of their own. We don't want to spend our time playing spot the difference with fake beauty adverts, we just want products that work. Advertise them how you will, but short cuts like this won't go unnoticed.
Charlotte Howells is the editor of Kiss and Makeup and Nollie. She's not that keen on patronising adverts, lately.
