CVS Pharmacy to create new standards for beauty imagery alterations

CVS Pharmacy has announced it will limit the use of retouched photography in its beauty brand imagery and marketing materials.

As part of the move, the company revealed a new set of standards for post-production alterations, which will be implemented by the end of 2020.

CVS Health executive vice-president and CVS pharmacy president Helena Foulkes said: “As a woman, mother and president of a retail business whose customers predominantly are women, I realise we have a responsibility to think about the messages we send to the customers we reach each day.

“The connection between the propagation of unrealistic body images and negative health effects, especially in girls and young women, has been established.

“As a purpose-led company, we strive to do our best to assure all of the messages we are sending to our customers reflect our purpose of helping people on their path to better health.”

The company intends to introduce a CVS Beauty Mark watermark to images that have not been materially altered to improve transparency. CVS defines materially altered as changing a person’s shape, size, proportion or eye colour, as well as making edits to reduce wrinkles and skin blemishes.

To ensure consistency and transparency, the pharmacy company will join its brand partners and industry experts to develop specific guidelines.

CVS Pharmacy is a subsidiary of US retail and healthcare company CVS Health.