Like most women, I have strived to emulate the makeup practices of celebrities and the women in makeup ads to the best of my abilities. After nearly five years of using makeup, I no longer look to ads or magazines for inspiration. Instead, I look to YouTube videos of other ordinary women like me in order to truly know how to create a look that is not generated by photo editing.
Let's be real, I'm sure about 99% of photos of celebrities in magazines and makeup ads everywhere are altered using Photoshop. Now that a major company like CVS Pharmacy has vowed to never edit a photo for a makeup ad ever again, I'm glad that a major authority in business is recognizing that its customers are human and may not exactly look like the women featured in advertisements.
Each and every day, the media constantly shows unrealistic images of women everywhere, whether its images of women with very slender bodies or a glossed face, free of any impurities. For years, women seeing unrealistic, edited images of women in the media has contributed to low levels of self-esteem, body image issues, and even eating disorders in women everywhere.
Instead of continuing to contribute to the plethora of images of women with flawless skin and skinny bodies, it is a very progressive move for CVS to choose to only use photographs in their ad campaigns that do not alter the model's appearance. Using images of women in makeup ads free of any retouches will not only provide realistic expectations for CVS' makeup consumers but also instill confidence in the consumers that they too, can look as beautiful as the model in the ads wearing the makeup.
Women are continuously obligated to conform to the beauty standards established by the media and Hollywood. Now that a neighborhood merchant of makeup is deciding to no longer use glossy, edited images of women in their advertisement propaganda indicate that large corporations are finally taking into account the negative impact heavily edited images of women have on the physical and mental well-being of women.
We are in a society where yes, people sometimes struggle to understand who they are and to cope with how they look. So, I commend CVS for realizing that women are given unrealistic expectations of how they're supposed to look after applying their faces with makeup. Having a company as major as CVS display photos of women in makeup that are not retouched in their stores will not only instill more confidence in its current consumers but also encourage other women to buy makeup at CVS.
Hopefully, other companies and media outlets will follow CVS' initiative.
