The Daily Mail recently published an article, “How The Big Beauty Brands Fool You Into Forking Out,” citing a variety of dubious marketing strategies, including copycat packaging, “beguiling” ingredients, outlandish boasts, and false science. For example, Rodial’s SUPER FIT Boob Job (top left) claims to expand one’s bra size. Not so fast, without any scientific or clinical proof, England’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) fined the beauty manufacturer for misleading consumers. When brands such as Dr. Ronald Moy’s DNA EGF Renewal line (top right) employ “medicinal packaging” — products are packaged in test tube-shaped bottles — Nikki Stopford, Director of Research for Which?, refers to this as “confusion marketing.” This pseudo-scientific marketing approach makes the line seem “technically superior to others, and makes the brand seem like it has a scientific basis and is, therefore, effective.”
