Taylor Swift's CoverGirl Campaign Yanked Amid Retouching Concerns

8:03 AM PST 12/21/2011 by Erin Carlson

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The cosmetics company pulled a print ad featuring the singer after the National Advertising Division complained she looked too unrealistic.

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CoverGirl has discontinued (translation: yanked) a print advertisement of celebrity spokes-singer Taylor Swift following an investigation into alleged retouching.

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Said ad shows a dewy-faced, long-lashed Swift striking a pose for the company's NatureLuxe Mousse Mascara; the large print boasts consumers' eyelashes will get "2X more volume" while the small print offers a disclaimer of sorts. "Lashes enhanced in post production," it reads.

Thus began an inquiry led by the National Advertising Division, which requested CoverGirl prove its mascara could double the volume, as it claims. Rather than cave to the watchdog group's demand, however, parent company Procter and Gamble went forward and struck down the ad, saying in a statement (via Yahoo! Shine): "Upon receiving the inquiry from the NAD, P&G discontinued the advertisement in question. The NAD has deemed our intervention as accurate and proper. We have always been committed, and we continue to be committed, to featuring visuals and claims that accurately represent our products' benefits."

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Swift, 22, has appeared in a string of spots for the makeup giant, but this is her first run-in with the photoshop police.

"You can't use a photograph to demonstrate how a cosmetic will look after it is applied to a woman's face and then -- in the mice type -- have a disclosure that says 'okay, not really,'" NAD director Andrea Levine told The Business Insider.

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U.S. and international advertising watchdogs are advancing in their goal of enforcing honesty in beauty ads -- namely, through banning Photoshop-altered images that represent an unrealistic, airbrushed version of reality. In July, the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority banned cosmetics ads featuring Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington because they were digitally enhanced.