Rimmel Ad Starring Cara Delevingne Banned by U.K.’s Advertising Watchdog

A Rimmel London campaign starring Cara Delevingne has been pulled by the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The beauty brand’s ad in question sees the model promoting the new Scandaleyes Reloaded mascara, which is touted as providing “extreme volume” and “extreme wear.” After receiving one complaint about the campaign’s exaggeration of the product’s effects, the ASA has ultimately concluded that the ad is misleading.

Rimmel parent company Coty stated that although there was postproduction treatment of the lashes, the ad provided an accurate representation of what the product had to offer. Coty also provided a photo of Delevingne’s bare lashes, arguing that they were similar, before and after the application of mascara.

Individual lash inserts, which Coty said were used in accordance with industry practice, were applied on the model only to fill in gaps and to create a uniform lash line. Some lashes were redrawn during postproduction since they weren’t clear due to Delevingne’s dark eyeshadow. Coty noted that no lashes had been lengthened or thickened.

However, the ASA argues that Delevingne’s lashes looked longer in the “after” photo, misleading consumers to expect similar results.

“While it was not clear whether this was due to the lash inserts or the ‘re-drawing’ of some lashes in post-production, or both, we considered that the overall effect was longer lashes with more volume,” stated the ASA. “Because the ad conveyed a volumising, lengthening and thickening effect of the product we considered the use of lash inserts and the post-production technique were likely to exaggerate the effect beyond what could be achieved by the product among consumers.”

The ASA, which has previously banned campaigns by L’Oreal, Christian Dior, Gucci and Miu Miu, has now ruled that the ad “must not appear again in its current form.”