CVS: Beauty in Real Life by Standard Black

CVS has rolled out a campaign called ‘Beauty in Real Life,’ the brand’s first advertising effort that doesn’t feature models who’ve been retouched.

It comes three months after CVS announced its plans to stop featuring imagery that has been “materially altered,” a term the company defines as “changing or enhancing a person's shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics.”

The campaign demonstrates the brand's “commitment to authenticity.” To illustrate its commitment the cause, CVS has created a ‘Beauty Mark’ watermark that will appear on imagery that has not been materially altered. The symbol will begin to make an appearance on beauty imagery produced by CVS this year.

The campaign will span digital, print, social media, out-of-home and television from April through June. The effort was produced with help from Standard Black, a boutique agency based in New York and Los Angeles.

Photos for the campaign were shot by Mei Tao, while the 30-second spot was directed by Kat Keene. Standard Black used Free The Bid, a nonprofit that advocates for female directors, to find a female director for the campaign.