Make Up For Ever: Unretouched Campaign
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Make Up For Ever: Unretouched Campaign
This spring, Make Up For Ever has launched a print and online ad campaign featuring their HD Invisible Cover Foundation–and the advertisements have not been digitally retouched. They have also launched a microsite, www.hd-not-retouched.com with a short video featuring the unretouched models shot next to items that have been digitally altered to highlight how deceptive retouching can be.
If there is one thing the early days of MySpace has taught me, it’s that angles are your best friend, and good lighting (or really terrible lighting) can go a long way to improving the overall image! I like that photography and artistry skills were used to achieve this ad.
What do you think of the new campaign?
While unretouched photography has been celebrated by magazines and celebrities alike, there are still very few advertising campaigns that use imagery that has not been digitally altered. HD Invisible Cover Foundation was developed specifically to mask imperfections that are often magnified in front of a camera lens, without adding texture to the skin. MAKE UP FOR EVER is thrilled to show women everywhere that they can look perfect both in front of the lens and in their everyday lives by choosing products that deliver professional results and can stand up to modern technology.
See close-up…
She's still wearing fake lashes but at least it's not the obscenely computer generated lashes in any of the jessica biel pictures, or any other mascara ad to be fair. I like it, it makes you think the whole look is more attainable than thinking, yeah i would look like that too if i could bring photoshop with me everywhere
I'd like to see the photo from the compact camera (which looks to be...upside-down?), ha ha.
Well, she obviously has perfect skin and isn't a day over 24, so she wouldn't need retouching anyhow. Also, like someone stated above, the lighting used at the photo shoot will make a huge difference to how the skin appears. In any case, I've heard that the foundation is very good and I'm curious to try it, but you can't buy MUFE where I live.
I am bought. Well done MUFE!
Wow, she's holding the camera upside down.
I LOVE IT!!!! I love that you can see the faint lines under her eyes. She looks amazing, she's gorgeous and has great, young skin, and she looks REAL. Not plastic.
More ads like these please!!!
I applaud MUFE for doing this...I am 49 years old,but really worry about much younger women not realizing that the unnaturally perfect skin texture in photoshopped images is unattainable.
Love this campaign!!!! not retouched... great, that´s hao we all look we are always unretouched, so, love reality!!! Besides the pic looks great!!!
You can tell that she has nice skin, but it is refreshing to see someone who looks more real, which makes the look feel more accessaible to those of us who are not supermodels.
LOVE THIS! Still she will look unretouched thousand times better than I do - with Photoshop ;-)
what does it matter when it's obvious she already has great skin? how about someone with imperfections that still show up even when you apply makeup?
Finally! so cool =)
This is great, now I want to go out & buy this.
I do like how the ad is un-retouched, the thing that bothers me though is that it looks like the colour is a bit off for her foundation cause her neck and face are different.
I absolutely love this ad campaign, I thought it was so fun and beautiful. I found 4 retouches, but there were probably many more. Their HD foundation really is something special. It truly does look great on camera.
The campaign has a good idea but is poorly executed. I strongly disliked their "find the retouched image" game because you had to click on every single model in order to get a close up of their face, and every time you clicked on their picture, it automatically assumed you were guessing the image was retouched. Basically, it's not really a game at all. Don't get my hopes up and then dash them by not really having a game!
This is a great start from MUFE in giving consumers some "truth in advertising". It would be great if they continued on in this vein and, as others said, showed us the "before and after" and used a model with less than flawless skin (for all we know, this model may well have imperfections - scars, redness, freckles, large pores, etc. - but we can't know this). So I hope MUFE will listen to the feedback and perhaps take this campaign to the next logical level. I'm going to watch the vid and see if they show the "before".
Photography student here. Lighting plays a HUGE role on how someone looks in a photo, even without makeup the right lighting can most people look dramatically better. But nonetheless, makeup ads should really show off the performance of the product, so I like this!
This is a little off topic, but does anyone know what colors she is wearing?? I'm loving her look and think it looks great! I'm so glad that they did a campaign like this!!! I think she actually looks better than some of their other ads!
They would really sell me if they had a campaign with a gorgeous girl with ugly blemishes. Show me that and I'll spend my whole check on foundation alone.
I can still tell that she has makeup on, but it looks pretty decent
I thought the model was either Ke$ha or Blake Lively.
I thought it was Blake as well!
/sigh. It saddens me that we hoped & wished for an un-retouched makeup campaign & some people are still "complaining". Now her face is too yellow or her skin is too perfect. Can anyone be happy anymore? I see why now you disable comments come award season. :(( I think this is a great step in the right direction for a makeup company. I even mentioned it on your You-Tube channel Christine & was curious if you saw it!
Read the ad again... see that little asterisk next to the claim? They don't have the fine print here, but I would be willing to guess that asterisk says, "other parts of the photo were retouched, just not the face". That way, they can legally claim that their makeup is doing what it's supposed to. But the camera screen has been dimmed artificially, her eyeballs have been whitened and I'm almost certain (having been on plenty of photo shoots) that they probably cleaned up some stray hairs and or moles / beauty marks. Once again, be careful at how the company stretches the definition of what they're claiming. While I agree that unretouched ads are a step forward, they weren't willing to go balls-out. They're still a product of the industry just like any other. In this case, they're using the gimmick for the purpose of selling their product. They've used reverse psychology on everyone to make their brand seem more "real". Keep in mind that at the end of the day, they're trying to sell makeup.
Marc, It actually says, "Make Up For Ever's first campaign with no retouching-certified by a notary public." It's on the right edge of the ad. If you can't read it, you should ask rather than make assumptions! :)
Wow this is awesome! She looks SO beautiful!
Gorgeoussss -- I love that you can see the natural texture of her skin and her freckles are adorable! Love this ad
The model is flawless to begin with...I love this girl. She is just so perfect!
no matter what companies do, it looks like people are going to complain, complain, complain. i think it's a step in the right direction and love this idea. great job mufe!
I love this. Lately it has been upsetting me more and more seeing so much retouching and false advertising in cosmetics ads. Good job MUFE!
her skin looks great , awesome ad, makes me want to get this foundation.
I love this idea! I have been playing with make up longer than some of the posters here have been alive! LOL and even though I know things are air brushed, I still get the 'let down' when I don't look exactly like the ads. But I think this will actually help buyers see what it can do with their skin texture (granted I am sure she has flawless skin) and how well it actually covers and blends. If more companies started doing this, I bet they will see an increase in sales.
It's not unretouched - I found another version of the same photo where the make-up looks different. Evidence and side-by-side comparison: http://copybot.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/make-up-for-ever-unretouched-my-bum/
It looks like they may have confused CMYK & RGB files actually to me - that was my first thought, because the coloring is so off in the more saturated photo. I've had promo product images sent over that weren't the right format and they have the same ultra saturated/intense look. I have no idea, but that was my first thought. Though MUFE's ad is certified by a public notary...
I agree. They surely futzed around with the colors/levels etc, but no clone stamp or painting in eyebrows, etc.
It looks like the color levels and lightness have been adjusted, which is pretty standard when you prepare a final image for print somewhere. That's something that is done to any image and is not the same thing as the ludicrous levels of airbrushing that have come to dominate ads and editorials. They maybe should have put something up somewhere clarifying the difference between color correction, ensuring that brightness/contrast isn't too harsh etc, and airbrushing and other more extreme techniques.
Agreed. No company will put out an totally untouched product, it needs to look finished for print/online. There should be fine print somewhere or the website should just mention they did colour correction, etc but not airbrushing of the model.
It looks like they color-corrected and adjusted the contrast and saturation to make the colors more true-to-life. I've always considered "retouching" to mean airbrushing and changing things to something they're not.
I love this! Great Ad! :)
No retouching has been done on this picture. There are lot of stray hairs, her laughter (not wrinkles) lines are visible. There is no skin tone color unification on her arms/chest and face/neck. You can see her natural fat deposits on her arms. My nephew is trainee fashion photographer and retouching is he's specialism- I have seen many many things!! Well Done MUFE!!! Before and after pictures should have been available on website for everyone to see, and a clip of the model applying the foundation would have been fun to watch also. However, it's a great picture and congrats to the model. She is taking a big risk in showing the industry/prospective clients that she isn't perfect. We women should salute the model for that.
I love this ad! I saw it in one of my magazines last week and even pointed it out to my husband! I really dislike makeup ads that claim to do this or that but then they are all retouched so you can't even tell if the product will be true to it's claim or look different in real life. I think more pictures and ads should be unretouched!
It's probably just a weird photo angle/light, but especially in the close-up it looks like her head was photoshopped onto her neck. It just looks really unnatural to me in that area. But I do like the idea behind this campaign.
One giant step for womankind!
Definitely been meaning to try this foundation...I'm a Sheer Glow girl right now, but I've heard MUFE is also quite nice :0)
Genius!
Good marketing. But we have to take into consideration that everyone working on this shoot is a professional. The model already has good skin, the makeup is applied by a professional makeup artist, and the photographer knows how to light the shot in the most flattering way.
LOVE this campaign!!!
Great idea. Love this!
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