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Julia Roberts in airbrush scandal

Julia Roberts and Christie Turlington are two of the most beautiful women in the world, but that hasn’t stopped their pictures from being airbrushed.

A series of L’Oreal advertisements featuring the actress and supermodel have been banned throughout Britain for being overly airbrushed.

The images of the two women were so digitally altered, that they were outlawed in the UK after the advertising regulator banned them as ‘misleading.’

In the ads, Roberts and Turlington appear to have flawless skin and extremely youthful looks.


The regulator said in a statement on its website that the two magazine advertisements did not accurately represent Maybelline’s The Eraser and Lancôme’s Teint Miricale foundations results, based on the information provided by L’Oreal which owns both Maybelline and Lancôme.

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Jo Swinson, a Liberal Democratic MP in Britain filed the complaints with the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) because the ads did not reflect reality.

“Excessive airbrushing and digital manipulation techniques have become the norm, but both Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts are naturally beautiful women who don't need retouching to look great. This ban sends a powerful message to advertisers - let's get back to reality,” said Ms Swinson.


Lancôme defended the ads by saying that the images of Roberts, which were taken by fashion photographer Mario Testino, were an ‘aspirational’ picture of what could be achieved through using the product.

But the company was unable to produce images of Roberts before the shoot, due to contractual obligations.

"It shows just how ridiculous things have become when there is such fear over an unairbrushed photo that even the advertising regulator isn't permitted to see it," Ms Swinson said.

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Maybelline on the other hand, were able to produce photos of Turlington before the make up was applied, but the ASA found that they were still too manipulated.


Both companies spokespersons came out defending the ad campaigns, declaring that the photos “did not exaggerate the effects” of the products.

Ms Swinson is also the co-founder of Campaign for Body Confidence, and hopes that this ruling will stop unnatural depictions of women in the mass media,

Do you think beauty companies have gone too far with manipulating their products results? Do you think these photos should be banned?

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