Coming To A Theater Near You: False Advertising?

January 28th, 2013. By AbiK

Beauty product class action lawsuits have been all over the news lately—three of the most recent are the Clinique Anti-Aging claims class action, the Avon ANEW product claim class action and the Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara class action lawsuit. All three lawsuits take aim at marketing claims that allegedly fail to deliver (aka, false advertising).

But beyond the consumer fraud—the price we all pay for promises not kept—is the price paid by women who are coaxed into believing that the advertising images are a) attainable and b) the only acceptable definition of ‘beauty’.

There’s a new movement afoot though that seeks to change that—in the form of an upcoming documentary aptly titled “False Advertising”. The beauty of it (no pun) is that is was the brainchild of three recent college graduates—all women—rather than some consumer watchdog group.

One of the women, Jennifer Bowker, was a sociology major and had written her senior thesis on the media and how it affects women’s body image and self-esteem. After graduation, Bowker joined forces with Avery Archie and Michelle Costales and together they produced “False Advertising”.

According to their Facebook page,

We made this documentary to help women start thinking critically about the media and how they define what is considered “beautiful.” It is detrimental to women, of all ages, when they internalize this ideal and strive to become it. After watching this, our hope is that women will view the media in a different light and see it for what it really is: False Advertising.

Kudos to these young women—just starting out in their careers—for taking a stance against dishonesty in beauty marketing. We applaud what they’re doing and wish them much success with the release of “False Advertising”.

 

Tags: Avon, Class Action Lawsuit, Clinique, Consumer Fraud, Estee Lauder, false advertising

This was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2013 at 9:30 am and is filed under Class Action, Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.