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Nivea ad banned over anti-ageing airbrush controversy

Skincare company that trades on the natural beauty of 'real women', slammed for heavy use of airbrush to erase its older model's wrinkles

Nivea has been slapped on the wrist and forced to remove a new advert for its anti-ageing cream Nivea Vital for misleading the public.

It seems that the remarkably youthful 60+ model pictured in the ad for the product can thank heavy airbrushing rather than Nivea's cream for her fresh-faced complexion, with critics complaining that she looks a full two decades younger than her 62 years.



The model is Cindy Joseph, who began her career in front of the cameras at age 49 and has always flown the flag for ageing gracefully.

Her face on the advertisement for the 'Multi-Active' day cream shows just a few lines around the eyes and only the slightest hint of frown lines on the forehead.

[Banned adverts of 2012]
[Children to be shown airbrushed pictures of Britney Spears]


The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated the ad after complaints and concluded: "We considered that the image of the older model, who was in the centre of the shot, had undergone extensive retouching resulting in substantial changes to the model’s appearance.

"Lines and wrinkles on her face, particularly around the eye and mouth area, had been dramatically reduced, and several age spots had been removed."


The product is designed to 'reduce all major signs of mature skin ageing', including visibly reducing wrinkles, improving firmness and helping prevent age spots. But turning the clock back 20 years is surely a feat beyond any cream.

The ASA added: "In the absence of evidence demonstrating that that effect was in line with that which could be achieved through use of the product, we concluded that the ad misleadingly exaggerated the performance of the product in relation to the claims ‘anti-age’."



Nivea has apologised but claimed it never intended to mislead customers.

It's not the first ad to be banned on grounds of false advertising. Natalie Portman's astronomic eyelashes were determined to be unrealistic in a L'Oreal ad last year, and the same company's airbrushing of Julia Roberts led to a similar ban.