CVS Pharmacy Will Stop using Photoshopped images

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The beauty industry is heavily reliant on Photoshop, but CVS Pharmacy wants that to change it.

In a press release issued on Monday, the pharmacy announced its commitment to developing new standards for “post-production alterations of beauty imagery.” To spring the plan into action, the company has introduced the “CVS Beauty Mark,” which will appear in the top-right corner of CVS imagery that has not been materially altered.

The watermark will indicate that “a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics” have not been changed or edited.

Helena Foulkes, the president of CVS Pharmacy and Executive Vice President of CVS Health believes that the company’s imagery can be influential to customers.

“As a woman, mother and president of a retail business whose customers predominantly are women, I realize we have a responsibility to think about the messages we send to the customers we reach each day,” Foulkes said in the official statement. 

The press release clarifies that the new standards will apply to CVS-produced beauty images that will appear in stores, on websites, social media, and in any marketing materials. However, the company is striving to make all beauty images affiliated with the store fully transparent by the end of 2020. According to the press release, CVS will achieve this by communicating with its beauty brands and partners. 

“We’ve been inspired by their willingness to partner with us to redefine industry standards around this important issue for the well-being of all of our customers,” Foulkes stated. 

It seems that CVS customers are already responding well to the announcement on Twitter. “Beauty in Real Life” is the biggest beauty campaign CVS has ever done, and it’s worth noting that the cast, photographer, director, marketing, and beauty teams are all female. In the ads, women are seen literally using their beauty products in real life, doing things like getting ready in the morning, or putting on makeup to go out at night. The photos all feature the “CVS Beauty Mark,” which is an indication that the images haven’t been altered or edited.