Beauty and the big business: A qualitative investigation of the development and implementation of the CVS Beauty Mark

Watermelons, Syringes, and Regulation: Instagram Marketing by Cosmetic Clinics in the UK and the Netherlands

BACKGROUND

Cosmetic clinics use social media to inform and market to prospective patients. Evidence from social media posts by the UK and Dutch cosmetic clinics illustrates the precarious balance between professionalism and commercialism, and raises important questions for the regulation of these marketing communication efforts.

METHODS

A random selection of Instagram posts by Dutch and the UK clinics which offer (non-) invasive cosmetic procedures were selected for a qualitative content analysis. The corpus of data comprised 395 posts by six Dutch and four UK clinics, published between January 2018 and July 2019. The method of analysis was inspired by previous qualitative studies into the marketing of cosmetic procedures and can be described as a (discursive) thematic analysis.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The tension between the medical-professional and commercial nature of cosmetic procedures was evident in the Instagram posts by Dutch and UK clinics. Despite calls for 'ethical' marketing on social media, this study illustrates that marketing materials are not always in line with current advertising guidelines. Whereas advertising standards authorities have warned against the trivialization of cosmetic procedures, posts by clinics backgrounded the medical nature of procedures in favor of more commercial advertising appeals. Furthermore, the posts demonstrated little diversity in terms of models' gender, ethnicity and body type, which reinforces narrow contemporary beauty ideals.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

"We should educate the public that cosmetic procedures are as safe as normal medicine": Understanding corporate social responsibility from the perspective of the cosmetic procedures industry

The cosmetic procedures industry is profitable and expanding. Through its premise and promotion, the industry contributes to unrealistic societal appearance pressures considered harmful to body image. In the context of limited regulation, there is an uneasy reliance on businesses in the sector to act in a socially responsible way. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to voluntary business practices designed to benefit society, and engagement in CSR is shaped by extrinsic and intrinsic drivers. This study aimed to explore how senior UK industry professionals view CSR as it applies to their sector and to body image. Findings from 14 semi-structured interviews show that participants' understanding of CSR was limited to a myopic focus on patients. Little reflexivity was demonstrated in relation to the industry's responsibilities concerning negative body image in society. More broadly, the drivers of socially responsible practice were overwhelmingly extrinsic - oftentimes explicitly linked to bolstering or protecting company and/ or industry reputation. Participants, acknowledging a lack of intrinsic motivation for CSR across the sector, were largely in support of greater regulation. This research contributes to understandings of how the adoption of a CSR agenda might combine with regulatory efforts to curb the industry's impact on negative body image.