When it comes to beauty products, CVS Health is becoming more transparent—starting with its marketing images.
On Monday, the drugstore chain announced that it was banning photo manipulation such as Photoshop on its own images for makeup and beauty products—and it’s pushing the other brands it sells to do the same.
Coming soon. The CVS Beauty Mark to support a more positive self image in women and girls by promoting more realistic beauty imagery.#realisbeautiful #CVSBeauty https://t.co/FlRGofTKU5 http://pic.twitter.com/J0bgZZbH58
— CVS Pharmacy (@cvspharmacy) January 15, 2018
Along with setting guidelines for image manipulation for social media, marketing and other promotional images used to sell cosmetics, CVS is asking companies such as Maybelline and Cover Girl to either follow its lead or clearly label retouched images.
Here’s an example the company shared:
In a press release, CVS wrote :
The company also announced that it will introduce the "CVS Beauty Mark," a watermark that will be used to highlight imagery that has not been materially altered. For this initiative, materially altered is defined as changing or enhancing a person's shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics. CVS Pharmacy will be working together with key brand partners and industry experts to develop specific guidelines in an effort to ensure consistency and transparency.
The reason for the image overhaul, a CVS chief said, is to stem self-esteem issues and other mental health problems perpetuated by unattainable images depicted in altered and airbrushed images—such as those found in popular magazines and cosmetic ads.
CVS wrote:
"As a woman, mother and president of a retail business whose customers predominantly are women, I realize 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, 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 Pharmacy President Helena Foulkes, who made the official announcement at the National Retail Federation's convention in New York, said the decision reflects an acknowledgment that "unrealistic body images" are "a significant driver of health issues," especially among women. About 80% of the chain's customers are women.
"We’re all consuming massive amounts of media every day and we’re not necessarily looking at imagery that is real and true," Foulkes said in an interview. "To try to hold ourselves up to be like those women is impossible because even those women don’t look like how they appear in those photographs."
A big reason for the shift, Foulkes says, is to put mental health first — especially because so much of what influences young people is through advertisements and social media, which fuels our intrinsic habit of comparing ourselves to others. "We can't help but be influenced when we are constantly bombarded by images of physical perfection — some influence is inescapable," says c linical psychotherapist Matthew Traube , MFT. "If we receive the message that we must look a certain way to succeed, even if it's unrealistic, it shapes our views of what success looks like. Feeling unable to succeed can create hopelessness, which can lead to reduced self-esteem, body image issues, and self-critical thinking."
Foulkes told anchors on “CBS This Morning” :
We’re bombarded with media every day. A couple statistics that really hit us: That 80 percent of women feel worse about themselves after looking at beauty ads, and 42 percent of girls in grades one through three want to be thinner.
However altruistic Foulkes statements are, the decision to ban altered images is probably ultimately meant to boost sinking sales and win favor with female consumers.
The move is likely aimed at winning over more female customers at a time of heightened competition in the beauty industry. What’s more, beauty products are a $3.4 billion a year business for CVS, generating 4.2% of retail sales in 2016, but that was a drop from the previous years.
The category is essential to generating shopper visits: CVS has struggled for several years with declining sales of general merchandise in its stores, declines offset by its booming prescriptions business.
It’s not the first time that CVS has changed its policies on health-related issues.
Fortune reported:
CVS, which recently said it would acquire giant health insurer Aetna (AET, +0.07%) , four years ago eliminated tobacco products from its stores as part of its pivot to being seen as a health care company rather than a retailer. The company also owns Caremark, one of the largest pharmacy benefits managers in the country.
In being the first major retailer to put a stop to manipulated marketing images, CVS will have to make many more decisions about what image edits should be acceptable—and which are not.
According to the official statement from CVS, the company is defining “materially altered” as “changing or enhancing a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics.” Not, however, taming a flyaway hair (to suggest one example that might sneak through).
“It’s a conversation we are having now with our partners,” Ms. Foulkes said. “If a famous actress shows up for a shoot and she’s had a very late work night and has dark circles under her eyes, is cleaning them up materially altering her image? I think it is, but other people might not.”
Once those conversations happen, though, other retailers and beauty brands might follow suit.
“With some 9,600 stores nationwide, CVS is one of the nation's largest sellers of beauty products, giving the company significant influence over makeup marketing,” USA Today reported .
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