In a pivotal time when consumers are demanding more transparency from companies and brands than ever before, CVS Pharmacy is taking major strides in reconciling the beauty industry’s relationship with unhealthy and unrealistic standards. In early 2018 the retailer officially announced its plan to completely eradicate Photoshopped or edited beauty imagery from its stores and all its digital and social media advertising by the end of 2020. This is the Beauty Mark initiative, wherein every untouched promo image is tagged with a watermark bearing the words “Beauty Unaltered.” It’s an unmistakable signifier that will allow customers to better identify authenticity in the digital landscape.
According to Reuters, CVS is the first major American company to implement a policy like this to date.
As the second-largest drugstore chain and third-most-popular beauty retailer in the US behind Walmart and Target (Reuters), CVS has leveraged their lofty market position to drive major attention to this initiative. Last month a press event was held in their Times Square location featuring image reveals and a panel discussion moderated by Katie Couric. Senior CVS officials and celebrity brand ambassadors like Ayesha Curry (for CoverGirl) spoke about the need for individuality in beauty. The discussion revealed CVS’s progress a year into the initiative: about 70% of their marketing and advertising imagery is now Beauty Mark compliant (CVS Health).
It’s no secret that Photoshop is an advertiser’s best friend, and has been for decades. Veins, under-eye bags, freckles, blemishes, waist size, and any other possible visual detractors are likely erased during post-production editing. A 2012 Fashionista article featuring a conversation with an anonymous retoucher revealed that 100% of what you see in fashion magazines is retouched or altered in some way.
This is a truth that many consumers are well aware of now. According to a consumer study commissioned by CVS, 92% of women polled think that the media supports unrealistic beauty standards through the usage and circulation of manipulated imagery (CVS Beauty IG). Seventy-seven percent of women and girls polled in a study commissioned by Dove believe that all media imagery is altered (MarketWatch). Filtering and other digital manipulations have become so prolific that it’s not just brands who wield that power anymore, it’s us now too. Anyone who owns a smart phone can do it, and that’s currently over 36% of the world’s population according to Statista.
It’s in this heightened atmosphere that the Beauty Mark initiative, which CVS describes as “…a pledge to pass on a healthy self-image to the next generation,” has found some solidarity in the industry (CVS Health). Roughly 13 of their brand partners, including Neutrogena, CoverGirl, Olay, and Revlon, have made the commitment to work with CVS to become Beauty Mark compliant. And midway through 2018, Dove made a recommitment to the Photoshop ban when they announced their own special watermark, the “No Digital Distortion Mark,” which functions in the same way as the Beauty Mark. As an early proponent of authenticity in the beauty industry (i.e., the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty), Dove’s Instagram account is plastered with unedited images of faces and bodies in all shapes and sizes. It’s all about the empowerment, the body positivity, and the authenticity.
But is all this self-love helping to move the sales needle? According to MarketWatch, Dove’s sales jumped up 60% to $4 billion after the initiation of the Real Beauty campaign in the mid-aughts. American Eagle’s lingerie brand, Aerie, reportedly saw a jump in sales of 32% after ditching Photoshop in their #AerieREAL campaign in 2014.
So has the next generation of shoppers and consumers spoken? Companies will need to listen.
