It's been a while since I'd heard from Britain's Ad Standards Authority, so I was excited to learn that they dropped their mighty ban hammer on a Christian Dior mascara ad featuring Natalie Portman. According to the ASA, the digital alterations to Portman's eyelashes were so obvious that they "misleadingly exaggerated the likely effects of the product." Now, this isn't really news on its own—most cosmetics companies either suck at Photoshop or are rich enough to not care. The real kicker here is that L'Oréal complained. That's right, L'Oréal, which has done enough questionable touch-up work in its own ads to qualify as a back-alley mob surgeon. The ASA really should take professional motivation into account in situations like this. They've banned ads based on a handful of complaints before, but at least the prissy old grannies who usually write to them aren't trying to make money from it.
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