Complaints questioned whether effects shown in campaign could be achieved with Clean and Clear anti-spot cream

• Mark Sweney
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 January 2010 07.26 GMT
• Article history

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned this advert for Clean & Clear spot control after viewers complained that the effects shown in the campaign were achieved by using makeup Link to this video

A TV campaign for a face cream that promised to make skin look blemish-free has been banned by the advertising watchdog because the "after" shots were achieved using makeup.

The television campaign, for Johnson & Johnson, promoted the company's Clean and Clear Spot Control Kit.

The campaign, created by ad agency DDB London, cited a trial with 30 girls using "before and after" shots and their testimonials to show the effectiveness of the anti-spot cream. "A clinical study showed 100% of people had improvement in just one day," ran a voiceover. "After four weeks, they all had fewer spots, reduced redness and much clearer skin."

The Advertising Standards Authority received two complaints challenging whether the images of the actresses "before and after" could be achieved using the product.

Johnson & Johnson said that the girls used were over 16 and were not models or actors. In the before shots all makeup, except eye makeup, was removed. However, for the "after" shots, Johnson & Johnson admitted that a "light powder" was applied to the girls' skin to "remove shine from the T-zone" of the face.

The company said it did this to make sure that "the shininess did not detract from the results on the improved clarity of skin". Johnson & Johnson said that the shots were representative of the results that can be achieved with the product.

However, the ASA said that it "noted a marked difference in the appearance of the clarity of skin between the before and after shots".

"We considered that, in order to make the before and after comparison fair, both shots should have been taken under the same conditions (both without makeup) to ensure that any visible improvement was an accurate representation of what could be achieved with the product," said the ASA.

I am reading Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture, edited by Carried McLaren and Jason Torchinsky. The book is a funny, smart and sometimes shocking collection of articles from Stay Free Magazine and blog. I first came across Stay Free when I was researching the psychology of advertising and was impressed by their sophisticated take on how adverts affect consumers' decision making. They discuss in Ad Nauseam how advertising is often misunderstood, with people relying on an intuitive 'Advertising doesn't effect me' view or swinging to the opposite extreme of the 'Sinister Advertisers Manipulate Consumers with their Mind Control Tricks' position. Both positions distract from the very real, but not magical, power of advertising.

The book has a great discussion of Wilson Bryan Key's Subliminal Seduction, the book that launched the idea that subliminal, and often sexual, figures are embedded in random features of adverts such as in ice cube shadows. The idea of these 'embeds' is nonsense, of course, but great fun to look for and a great distraction from the real persuasive content of the advert. The book also has a chapter on the origins of modern advertising practice in 19th century pharmaceutical advertising (the manufacturing of ailments for which ready made 'cures' can be sold has been covered by Vaughan on mindhacks.com before, in relation to the mental health). Packed with critical analysis of the advertising industry, more informative history and some shocking examples of how consumerism has worked its way into many aspects of our daily lives, this book is essential intellectual self-defense, managing to be critical and aware without ever being sanctimonious or hysterical.

Cross-posted at idiolect.org.uk

The reason advertising works on most of us is that we feel there is something missing, that if we could only do or have X we could be happier, that we need whatever happiness they're offering.

If instead we could find completeness, find happiness, find contentedness ... advertising wouldn't work. We'd say, "Thanks, but pass."

And here's the thing, of course (you knew this was coming): you already have all that.

You just need to realize it, and internalize it.

You have everything you need for happiness, right now. The typical desires for more money, a nicer house and car, nicer clothes and gadgets, a big-screen TV, a super-successful career or business, etc. ... none of that will get you happiness.

Happiness is simple pleasures, is spending time doing what you love and spending time with those you love. Happiness is realizing the world around us, no matter where we are, is a miracle, is beautiful and filled with sources of joy.

Do you have eyes? Then you have the tools to enjoy the sky, the water, greenery, people -- all miracles, all wonderful. Do you have ears? You have the tools to enjoy music, and laughter, and conversation. Do you have taste buds? You are blessed with a symphony of wonders, in berries and chocolate and popcorn and pure water and mint and chocolate chip cookies and spicy Thai food.

These are the tools for happiness. Use them, and realize you are blessed beyond belief.

Live life by appreciating every moment as a miracle, and you'll want for nothing. Appreciate the people around you, for the crazy complicated uniqueness they are, and you'll need no further entertainment.

You have it all. So when someone offers more, you can now say, "Thanks, but pass."

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
- Lao Tzu

People are more confident about their choices if the message is negative

People can perceive subliminal messages, particularly if the message is negative, according to a UK study.

In three experiments at University College London, participants were briefly shown masked words and asked to classify them as emotional or neutral.

The study, published in the journal Emotion, says being able to react to tiny cues helps us to avoid danger and may have useful marketing uses.

But critics say there is no evidence this would work outside a laboratory.

 

A SUBLIMINAL HISTORY 1957 market researcher James Vicary claimed that flashing messages on a movie screen in New Jersey had made people purchase more food and drink He coined the term "subliminal advertising" In 1958 the UK, America and Australia banned the practice In 1962 James Vicary admits he falsified the results In 1974 despite no evidence that it worked the UN said it was a major threat to human rights In 1985 Dr Joe Stuessy told the US Senate that more research was needed on the subliminal messages in heavy metal music In 1990 the band Judas Priest was taken to court by parents of boys who killed themselves after listening to their music. Judas Priest said if they wanted to use subliminal messages they would be to tell the kids to buy more records

Professor Nilli Lavie from University College London showed 50 participants a series of words on a computer screen.

Each word appeared on-screen for only a fraction of a second - much too fast for the participants to consciously read the word.

The words were either positive (eg cheerful, flower, peace), negative (eg agony, despair, murder) or neutral (eg box, ear, kettle).

After each word, the participants had to choose whether the word was neutral or emotional (positive or negative) and how confident they were of their decision.

The researchers found that the participants answered most accurately when responding to negative words, even when they believed they were merely guessing the answer.

They were able to accurately categorise 66% of the negative words compared to 50% of the positive ones.

'Evolutionary advantages'

Professor Lavie said: "We have shown that people can perceive the emotional value of subliminal messages and have demonstrated conclusively that people are much more attuned to negative words.

"Clearly, there are evolutionary advantages to responding rapidly to emotional information.

"We can't wait for our consciousness to kick in if we see someone running towards us with a knife or if we drive under rainy or foggy weather conditions and see a sign warning 'danger'.

Subliminal advertising is not permitted on television in the UK.

But Professor Lavie said her work could be applicable to marketing campaigns: "Negative words may have more of a rapid impact - "Kill Your Speed" should work better than "Slow Down".

"More controversially, a competitor's negative qualities may work on a subconscious level much more effectively than shouting about your own selling points."

The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust.

But marketing psychologist, Paul Buckley, of the Cardiff School of Management, said there was no evidence that subliminal messages work in the real world: "From a practical point of view this probably doesn't reflect what would happen in real life.

"Certainly lots of countries around the world have legislation to ban subliminal messages being used on television and nobody has yet been able to point to any instance where a subliminal message has worked."

By Sara Nelson 

Last updated at 9:41 AM on 28th August 2009

A father-of-two has spoken of his disgust after spotting fruity cartoon characters appearing to have sex on SWEET wrappers.

Simon Simpkins was buying Haribo MAOAM sour candies for his children when he noticed the 'pornographic' illustrations of limes, lemons and cherries romping with each other.

Mr Simpkins, of Pontefract, West Yorkshire, said: 'The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter. 

 

Fruity: According to Mr Simpkins, the lime has a 'particularly lurid' expression on its face during its encounter with a lemon

 

 

Debauched: The lime enjoys a similarly smutty experience with a willing pair of cherries

'The lime, whom I assume to be the gentleman in this coupling, has a particularly lurid expression on his face.'

He said: 'I demanded to see the shop manager and, during a heated exchange, my wife became quite distressed and had to sit down in the car park.'

A spokesman for Haribo said the 'fun' packaging of the sweets was introduced in Germany 2002 and added: 'This jovial MAOAM man is very popular with fans, both young and old.'