CVS BeauTy Mark
Client: CVS Health
Role: Creative Director
Clio Gold:
Fashion & Beauty
PR Health & Wellness
Cannes Shortlist
Commerce Brand experience
Effie Finalist
D&AD Impact
finalist
How we changed the beauty industry by holding its marketing to a more honest standard.
Beauty standards are impossible. It’s no secret that women face tremendous pressure to keep up with ideal images. CVS created a symbol, the Beauty Mark, to indicate images that have not been altered: not airbrushed or shaped to be “perfect.” We brought transparency where it wasn’t available— in the images that surround our consumers and in their feeds. We transformed it from a simple mark to a recognizable symbol of transparency for the category— helping women have a better, healthier self-image.
Results:
• 3.6B earned impressions
• 15.1 MM total shared content reach
• 104MM total #BeautyUnaltered impressions
• 11 major beauty brands committed to transparency
• 0% negative sentiment on social
• 80% of aware consumers have a more positive impression of CVS’s beauty offering
• 21% YOY increase in millennial beauty shoppers
• “Leading innovator in beauty” by Fast Company
• Mass Market Retailer of the Year by WWD Beauty Inc Awards
CASE STUDY
Online Video
Branded Social Posts
OOH
With Real-time UGC.
In New York Times Square, one of the top places in the world to be surrounded by digitally altered images, we displayed larger-than-life, unretouched images, celebrating real beauty—including pores, scars and flyaways. Forget filters and FaceTune, we empowered consumers to share their own #beautyunaltered selfie.
Beauty Brands & Celebrity Ambassadors
In-store Panel
Campaign Photography
Our photography proudly features models with freckles, moles, scars, lines, and flyaways (common marks normally removed from beauty marketing imagery during the editing process). No, to retouching. Yes, to real.
Press
Ad Age, CVS Provides Update to Beauty Transparency Initiative
ALLURE, Major Drugstore Beauty Brands Are Helping CVS Reach Its Goal of Eliminating Photoshopped Imagery
GLAMOUR, Celebs are Now Going Photoshop-Free in Beauty Ads for CVS
FAST COMPANY, Big beauty brands eagerly join the CVS Photoshop ban
BUSTLE, CVS Is No Longer Photoshopping Its Beauty Ads
REFINERY29, Kerry Washington Goes Photoshop-Free For CVS Beauty Campaign
NBC NEWS, CVS’s new ‘Beauty Mark’ campaign will let you know when beauty aisle photos have been retouched
TODAY SHOW, CVS announces beauty photos will not be retouched
BUSINESS INSIDER, Kerry Washington isn't retouched in her new CVS campaign
MARKETWATCH, Kerry Washington explains why companies like CVS are ditching Photoshop in beauty ads
FASHION NETWORK, CVS accelerates toward fully transparent beauty imagery, debuts unaltered campaigns
POPSUGAR, See This Unretouched Photo of Kerry Washington and Proceed to Lose Your Ability to Speak
ROMPER, 'Beauty Unaltered' Campaign From CVS Is A Huge Step Forward In The Fight Against Unrealistic Standards Of Beauty
STYLECASTER, Photoshop-Free CVS Beauty Ads
WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, CVS’ Big Reveal: Brand Support Accelerates Transparency Efforts in Beauty Aisles,
WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, Ayesha Curry Headlines CVS Panel on Positive Beauty Representation
US MAGAZINE, Ayesha Curry Gets Real With a New Unretouched Campaign
NYC INFORMER, Here’s What Kerry Washington Looks Like Without Photoshop
DESIGNTAXI, Revlon, L’Oreal & More Vow To Go Photoshop-Free For CVS Beauty Campaign
biz women, Cvs’ promise to eliminate retouched images from its retail
CHEDDAR, CVS Pharmacy Gives Its Beauty Aisle a Makeover
BW CONFIDENTIAL, CVS revamps its beauty aisles with focus on unaltered images
chain drug review, New beauty aisles at CVS reflect transparency
daily herald, CVS eliminates 70 percent of retouched images
daily mail, CVS Launches Initiative to Show Imagery that Has not Been Retouched
15 minute news, CVS’ Big Reveal: Brand Support Accelerates Transparency Efforts
Industry Recognition
2019 clio gold— fashion & beauty
2019 Cannes Lion shortlist— PR Health & Wellness
2019 d&ad impact— health & wellness finalist
2019 Festival of media NA— Pharma
2019 festival of media na— collaboration
2019 shorty social good— mental health
2019 shorty social good— fashion, beauty & luxury
2019 shorty social good— retail & e-commerce
2019 shorty social good— call to action
2019 shorty social good— user generated content
2019 SHORTY Best in Beauty
2019 SHORTY Best in Retail & E-commerce
2019 SHORTY Best media buying on a show-string budget
2019 Digiday modern retail— best retailer / agency collaboration
2019 hatch— cause related marketing campaign
2019 hatch— experiential live event
Credits