Kantor & Kantor, LLP heartily applauds CVS Pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Health Corporation, for its decision to “end touch ups of its beauty images in its marketing campaigns by the end of 2020.” On Monday January 15, 2018, CVS Pharmacy announced that that this decision will impact their marketing materials and that they will work with “key brand partners and industry experts” to develop specific guidelines in an effort to ensure transparency about images used by the company.
CVS will begin using the “CVS Beauty Mark,” a watermark used to highlight imagery that is not digitally or materially altered. In essence, if a person’s “shape, size, skin or eye color, or any other individual characteristics” have been altered, there will be a watermark to indicate such.
We find this move by CVS to be bold and vitally important, especially given that so many people suffer from body image distortion and body image dysmorphia, both of which can have an influence on the development of eating disorders. This decision is equally important because research is clear that media can have a negative impact on self-esteem. In Joel Miller’s article, “Media and Body Image,” he shares alarming statistics related to the media’s effect on women and their body image:
Teen People Magazine conducted a recent survey. In it, they discovered that over 25% of the girls surveyed felt that the media makes them feel pressure to have a perfectly shaped body.
In another study, 69% of girls concurred that models found in magazines had a major influence on their concept of what a perfect body shape should look like.
- Only 5% of women in the U.S. actually fit the current body type popularly portrayed in advertising.
We hope that every company will follow in the wise-footsteps of CVS! And we hope that CVS’s effort will result in a significant decrease in the number of people who look at unrealistically-airbrushed images and end up thinking self-deprecating thoughts because they feel they don’t “measure up.”
If you ever need treatment to overcome body image issues or an eating disorder, please know that you deserve treatment! If you are ever denied insurance benefits for treatment, please call Kantor & Kantor for a free consultation or fill out our online contact form.
