TV Ad Offends Viewers by Exploiting Women’s Body Image Insecurities

A U.K.-based food-delivery service that promises to help people “lose a healthy amount of weight” is under fire for sending a decidedly unhealthy message with its latest advertising campaign. Diet Chef released a video, which has since been banned, portraying a character, Cheryl, who seemed to have emerged from a depressed state and achieved happiness after “becoming slim again,” according to the Belfast Telegraph.

The ad featured the former, heavier Cheryl — appearing disheveled and distressed — speaking to current-day, slimmed-down, and shiny, happy Cheryl. “Old” Cheryl seemed depressed and disappointed, because, with a BMI of 27.4, she could not seem to “make a change in her lifestyle or to maintain a controlled diet.” You can see the video for yourself here.

“New” Cheryl, however, having shed pounds thanks to her Diet Chef plan, assures her former, distraught self from just two months prior, “I know how you feel. You can look that good again, you know.” Sad Cheryl says to her future self, “You look… amazing! I never dreamed I could be that slim again,” and alludes to not feeling confident enough to wear a bikini, implying that weight loss and the “ideal body” are the path that leads to happiness and self-love. The message did not sit well with 26 viewers, who felt the Diet Chef was body-shaming women and complained about the ad to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an independent group that regulates advertising across all media in the United Kingdom.

After viewing the ad, the ASA determined that it was not former-Cheryl’s slovenly appearance that could be considered offensive. Her character’s “unhappy demeanor while talking about wearing a bikini,” it said, “appeared disproportionate to concerns about her weight, especially as she did not appear to be particularly overweight.” Consequently, the ASA has ruled that the ad cannot run in its current incarnation, and must be reworked to reflect a healthier message about weight control and body image.

“We considered that viewers would understand that her concerns about her weight had had a significant effect on her general well-being,” representatives for the ASA said in a statement, according to the Belfast Telegraph. “We considered that, overall, the ad focused disproportionately on the former Cheryl’s negative feelings about her appearance and implied that weight loss was the only solution to her problems.

“It therefore implied that those with insecurities about their bodies, and particularly their weight, could only achieve happiness and self-confidence through weight loss. We therefore concluded that the ad presented a socially irresponsible approach to body image and breached the code.” The ASA has decided the ad must be replaced with a new, more “socially responsible” one.

The scandal calls to mind past examples of body-shaming in advertising that have ruffled feathers among consumers and set poor precedents for body image. In August, a U.K.-based gym, Fit4Less, plastered an almost unbelievably offensive ad across a billboard. The ad tried to be cute by showing a furry green monster asking “Tired of being fat and ugly? Just be ugly at Fit4Less.”

In May of 2015, an ad that was banned after being being vandalized and protested in Britain for body-shaming women somehow crossed the pond and landed in possibly the most conspicuous advertising real estate in the world: a spot in the middle of Times Square in New York City. Protein World ran a print campaign that featured a Victoria’s Secret model in a barely there swimsuit to advertise its Weight Loss Collection of meal replacements and supplements. The image, infuriatingly implying that less-than-perfect bodies don’t belong in swimsuits and have no place on the beach, was accompanied by the message “Are you beach body ready?” (Don’t they know that every body is a beach body?)

Apparently, for Protein World, any publicity is good publicity. The company’s head of marketing, Richard Staveley, responded by calling the controversy in Britain “fantastic” and added (we suggest you sit down for this one!) that the new poster was a “big middle finger to everybody who bothered to sign that stupid petition in the U.K. It’s a fat F-U to them all. You could say that the London protestors helped pay for the New York campaign.” Protein World CEO Arjun Seth even went so far as to call protesters of the ad “terrorists.”

PR World named the ad its “flop of the month,” saying that Protein World’s response to the uproar was worse than the ad itself.

Body-shaming marketing tactics have been used as a marketing ploy since the very earliest days of advertising. Mental Floss rounded up 40 vintage ads that “sold shame” to women as far back as the 19th century — suggesting just how outdated and ridiculous body-shaming is in the first place. One ad promotes a medieval-looking contraption promoted as the “Chin Reducer and Beautifier,” which it claims “gives the flesh the resiliency and freshness of youth.”

Another ad — produced post-Depression, when curvier bodies signified health, not life-threatening hunger — shamed women into gaining weight so they could attract suitors. “If men hate the sight of you, read this,” the ad proclaimed, showing an illustration of an emaciated woman (in the 1990s, we would have called her a waif and glorified her) bemoaning her appearance. “Men hate the sight of me, I’m so skinny. I’m going to try ironized yeast.” A few weeks and 10 to 20 pounds later, our protagonist is looking curvaceous in — you guessed it — a bikini, prompting an eager man to say oh-so-cleverly, “You’re gorgeous since you’ve gained weight!”

Thankfully, we’ve come a long way for the most part, considering that ads this offensive are few and far between. In October of 2014, an anti-obesity PSA called “Rewind the Future” skirted the line between decency and fat-shaming for many viewers. The video portrayed a 300-pound man having a weight-related heart attack in an emergency room, while his life flashed before his eyes.

For some, it resonated. One person wrote on Reddit, “I’m 5’9, 32 years old and almost 300 pounds. I played all those gaming systems and pretty much grew up like that. … I think for the first time, a PSA got to me.” Another wrote, “As someone who is overweight (working on it, have lost considerable weight) and an MD, obesity is a very, very personal and important topic for me. I have seen time and time again obese patients crash in the hospital. Obesity is perhaps one of the worst comorbidities to have for a hospital patient. It complicates everything. Every. Single. Thing.… And while I do understand that these patients are responsible for their conditions, I cannot help but feel empathetic when I look back at my own history.”

Although the producers of the video claimed that its shock value was intended to educate viewers — “We’re trying to help parents see themselves and their behaviors, and to understand the impact of those behaviors,” said marketing spokesperson Tim Whitehead — some obesity experts considered that the ad carried a potentially harmful message. “If you want to draw attention to yourself and your campaign, then this is a helpful video. If what you want is to have a helpful effect on childhood obesity, the research is clear that shocking and stigmatizing doesn’t really help,” obesity researcher and public policy expert Ted Kyle told Yahoo Health. “Shame is not a friend to promoting health.”

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