Christina Hendricks’ Clairol commercial was banned for being misleading
We have all experienced the confusing mix of envy and admiration when gazing at Christina Hendricks’ gorgeous red hair. But collective love for Christina as a redhead was not the reason a U.K. Clairol ad featuring the Mad Men star was pulled off the air recently.
The advertisement came under fire for misrepresenting a dye-job: Christina exchanged her red hair for a lovely golden blonde shade. “I’ve been the same shade of red for many years,” Christina, a natural blonde who has been dyeing her hair red for years, says in the ad. “I think it’s time to change it up! Goodbye red; hello golden blonde.”
But the advertisement made it seem as though Christina just used one product — Nice & Easy hair dye — to achieve this shade. However, as many of us who have tried to dye our hair blonde know, going from a darker shade to a lighter shade is not that easy — it can require bleaching and multiple dyes, especially if your hair was once a vivid red. That’s exactly why two viewers, both hair-color educators who recognized the pretty exaggerated claims of the advertisement, called attention to the ad, prompting the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to take the wheel.
Here’s how the advertisement was shot: a year ago, in preparation for the advertisement, Christina went eight weeks without coloring her hair red. This washed out some of the red. Then, Procter & Gamble dyed her hair blonde and shot that section of the ad, waited a day, and dyed it red again for the other section of the ad. Essentially, the ad was shot backwards — Christina went from blonde to red, not the other way around. Eeeek.
In January of this year, Christina was announced as a Clairol brand ambassador, and the campaign was revealed in March, according to the ASA:
Though the ASA understood the practical reasons behind shooting the blonde section of the advertisement first, they pointed out that, after re-dyeing Christina’s hair in 2015 blonde, it wasn’t nearly as vivid as it was in the advertisement (which you can see via photos here, here, and here, as Jezebel notes — she does look more like a strawberry blonde). Thus, ruling that the advertisement “misleadingly exaggerated the capability of the product,” the ASA pulled it from the air (though you can still watch it on YouTube).
Pulling the ad likely prevented a lot of redheads from trying to go blonde and turning their hair bright orange — and stopping hair disasters is something we’ll always be on board with. Check out the advertisement below (and be prepared for some serious hair envy for BOTH shades, because Christina can rock any color ever.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doGilbieMJ0
(Image via YouTube.)
