A selfie of actor and producer Courteney Cox is an authentic photograph of her not wearing any makeup.
On Aug. 23, 2022, we spotted an online ad from the Mighty Scoops website that claimed, “Courteney Cox, 57, Takes Off Makeup, Leaves Us With No Words.” The picture in the ad showed the Hollywood actor and producer perhaps looking quite a few years older than expected, supposedly without makeup applied. However, this was misleading.
Once clicked, the ad led to a 63-page slideshow article. Cox finally showed up on page 62. The article mentioned nothing about the photograph from the ad. It was nothing more than clickbait. We hope that we saved our readers some time.
The truth here was that Cox, a star of the “Friends” TV show and “Scream” movies, as well as an executive producer of “Cougar Town,” had posted the picture in 2019 using a FaceApp filter. This fact was reported by celebrity gossip website JustJared.com. (The article was no longer available as of this writing, but Google cache still had it.)
In sum, a picture that was promoted in an online ad was not an authentic photo of Cox with no makeup. It had been processed through a filter in the FaceApp mobile app.
Snopes debunks a wide range of content, and online advertisements are no exception. Misleading ads often lead to obscure websites that host lengthy slideshow articles with lots of pages. It’s called advertising “arbitrage.” The advertiser’s goal is to make more money on ads displayed on the slideshow’s pages than it cost to show the initial ad that lured them to it. Feel free to submit ads to us, and be sure to include a screenshot of the ad and the link to where the ad leads.
Sources:
Celebrity Goddesses: Check Out How They Really Look Like Under All The Makeup! https://mightyscoops.com/trending/celebrity-goddesses-check-out-how-they-really-look-like-under-all-the-makeup-taboola-taasif.
“Courteney Cox.” IMDb, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001073/.
“Courteney Cox Has Some Fun Trying Out the FaceApp!” Just Jared, 18 July 2019, https://www.justjared.com/2019/07/18/courteney-cox-has-some-fun-trying-out-the-faceapp/.