By SUNNY NOWACKI
Contributing Writer
One would be hard pressed today to find a beauty product advertisement without some form of alteration or touching-up done to the model’s features. Removal or alteration of wrinkles, blemishes, weight, and/or skin hue are just a few of the normal practices for selling beauty products. However, CVS Pharmacy posted a new promise to be implemented and required by the end of 2020 on the Official Corporate Website for CVS Health. On Monday, Jan. 15, CVS introduced Beauty Mark, a new standard for beauty product alterations.
Beauty Mark will be a watermark attached to any and all photos that have not been altered in CVS stores nationwide. Not only are CVS brand products going to be implementing this new standard, but they are also reaching out to other brands whose products they house in their stores to do the same. If these other retailers still choose to keep their products altered, they will be clearly labeled as such.
So what counts as alterations and touch-ups? In the formal announcement posted to CVS Health, the company defines these alterations as such: “We will not digitally alter or change a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color or enhance or alter lines, wrinkles or other individual characteristics.” President of CVS Pharmacy and Executive Vice President of CVS Health, Helena Foulkes, gave a brief statement in this announcement giving an explanation as to why this change is occurring. Foulkes stated that the main reason for this change is to improve the health and wellbeing of their customers, mainly young girls and women who are subjected to “unrealistic body-images” which then leads to “negative health effects.” Foulkes mentioned that as the President of such a large retail industry, she and her fellow leaders have a responsibility to put the health of their consumers first and foremost.
CVS Health has made changes like this in the past with consumer’s health in mind. In the fall of 2014, CVS stores nationwide stopped selling cigarettes and other tobacco products altogether. CVS is also still making initiatives to sell healthier foods both in refrigerators and at checkout. Though this initiative only began in the summer of last year and is still underway. This company is constantly taking steps and making announcements for their drive to produce healthier products.
Not only is CVS putting an end to altered images in their store, but this drive also extends much further than that. The official announcement states that CVS aims to “create new standards for post-production alterations of beauty imagery it creates for stores, websites, social media and any marketing materials.”
The announcement introducing Beauty Mark was also accompanied by a statement of praise from Judy Vredenburgh, the CEO and President of Girls Inc. Girls Inc. is a nonprofit organization promoting the health and wellness both physically and mentally of girls across the country. Vredenburgh stated that Girls Inc. is “honored” to stand behind this new initiative to ban destructive stereotypes about beauty for women and girls of all kinds.
This commitment is about empowering women and changing society’s misguided views about beauty. The announcement on CVS Health’s website is all about women, but one can only hope this new standard will help men and boys struggling with their own self-image as well. Anyone regardless of gender identity can and will benefit from Beauty Mark, and hopefully other companies besides CVS will follow in eradicating or reducing the harmful way beauty is portrayed.
