America's largest drugstore chain is vowing to put an end to beauty ads where models have been digitally altered from their original form.
CVS is introducing new guidelines that strive for "transparency for beauty imagery", which will include a watermark on ads to confirm no alterations have been made. The campaign, titled 'CVS Beauty Mark', will be rolled out in all 9,700 locations across the country. According to an official press release, the company defines alterations as "changing or enhancing a person's shape, size, proportion, skin, eye colour, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics."
"As a woman, mother and president of a retail business whose customers predominantly are women, I realise we have a responsibility to think about the messages we send to the customers we reach each day," said Helena Foulkes, president of CVS Pharmacy and executive vice president of CVS Health. "The connection between the propagation of unrealistic body images and negative health effects, especially in girls and young women, has been established. As a purpose-led company, we strive to do our best to assure all of the messages we are sending to our customers reflect our purpose of helping people on their path to better health."
CVS stocks products from multiple beauty giants who have previously faced backlash due to photoshopping including, L'Oreal and Maybelline.
The CVS Beauty Mark will begin appearing on company-produced images in 2018. The goal is to have all images in the beauty section reflect transparency by 2020.
"We've reached out to many of our beauty brand partners, many of whom are already thinking about this important issue, to work together to ensure that the beauty aisle is a place that represents and celebrates the authenticity and diversity of the communities we serve," Foulkes added.
