Zooey D. (or so Rimmel tells me)

Except I can't recognize her at all.

No, seriously, who is that? Because the last time I checked, Zooey Deschanel looked more like this:

To a certain degree, I can understand Photoshopping and airbrushing and all that good stuff in cosmetics advertising campaigns, but Rimmel's Zooey campaign has thus far been ridiculous. I can't recognize her in any of their ads, but this one has to take the cake.

For one thing, didn't they hire her precisely because she's already adorable and quirky? On that note, didn't they pay some obscene amount of money for the right to use her face—the one that she's, you know, famous for—in conjunction with their products? So if they did indeed pay out a contract, then why aren't they actually using her face.

For another thing... I mean, let's be honest, okay. Is it just me, or does she look like a completely disproportionate freak show here? Isn't the point of Photoshopping to make someone look better? I'm so baffled as to why Rimmel paid someone (else!!!) to make an actress who is already good-looking look like a really bizarre mutant instead. Like, seriously, what was the point of moving her lips down 2 cm? Were they too human in the original picture or something?

I mean, I don't like photographic enhancement in advertisements, but I don't particularly mind them. It's marketing and photography, and I've messed around enough with my own camera to know that even without digital fiddling, there are plenty of things that can make something appear photogenic even when it isn't. I also understand that the ad's purpose is to sell a product, so exaggerating the awesome is a matter of course. (Although why anyone would want their eyelashes to be a bushy, obviously fake mess is beyond me...)

But this? I don't understand this. It's aesthetically not pleasing. I can't even remember what product this is supposed to sell, because I'm too distracted by the fact that she looks like an awkwardly painted doll who knows that someone screwed her face up and is stuck with a half-way pissed off smile for all eternity.

Look, Rimmel, I don't hate you. Actually, most of the time, I really like your products. But seriously, please either hire a better graphic artist who actually understands that famous endorsers should probably actually resemble themselves in the end product or pour that money into R&D instead, okay? For the sake of my retinas, if nothing else.