Social media has been divided in a debate over that annoying ‘Are you beach body ready?’ poster currently on the Underground. Here are 10 reasons why that poster is B*S* and why we must condemn it:
- It’s edited and therefore does not represent a real body
- The poster suggests that you are only ‘beach body ready’ if your body looks like the Photoshopped model
- There is no representation of other body shapes and sizes that are more realistic
- It makes women feel like crap, as one Facebook user comments: “I hate this sign. I look at it twice a day whilst waiting for my tube train. It makes me feel like sh*t.”
- It promotes extreme dieting when we should be promoting healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle and not “meal replacement plans”
- It’s part of the reason why 47% of teens want to change their appearance and children as young as 13 now want liposuction
- It represents the bigger picture of using ‘ideal’ body image to sell a product
- Consumers of the campaign will subliminally take the body shape shown as gospel and will then use it to benchmark themselves and others against
- Because the beach is for everybody, regardless of your appearance or body shape
- And last but not least… (our design team suggested this one)… that shade of yellow is really offensive
There you have it. 10 ultimate reasons why we must unite as a society, chew this crap up and spit it back out. This is NOT acceptable and we’re chuffed it was banned.
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Fionn Travers-Smith
I agree with all of it except number 10 – love that shade of yellow! 😛
Ditch the Label
Fionn, we support you and believe that everybody should be treated fairly regardless of their favourite colour! ^_^
Connugy
I want to agree with you… I DO, becasue it’s a shit advert, in the wrong place and it’s arrogant.
But to each of your points…
1 – Is it edited? Is that proven? OK, colouring aside, that body SHAPE would be something a company selling what they do would knowngly do…undermines their product.
2 – Perhaps. This is a product being sold on “protein world” remember…..
3 – On that advert, tell us which shapes they should have put up for a body conditioning product….. please?
4 – And so what? There’s one they did with a man. You heard nothing of that. And you mention nothing of it either.
Now, given that this is an anti-buillying website, and gvien that depressin is the SINGLE biggest killer of young men (to whom this ad is targeted), could you not find it, in all your wisdom, in all your reasoning, to mention it….. even once, maybe!?
Come on. You make the argument “it make swomen feel like crap”, but what about men…. Just once? No? OK then.
6 – Yes it’s symptomatic of a bigger trend (actually more prevalent in women’s magazines… but it seems as if you dont “go there”). Is that what you meant?
7 – It does. But it’s products being sold in an industry availabel tO the public where the “ideal” body image is the legitimate, understated and ultimate aim. Kind of undermines any other argument against it, but let’s see.
8 – Those consumers already want that and have long-formed their own opinions before this advert. They’re the ones they’re selling this crap to, so it’s kind of on point.
9 – True. You’re starting to say you can’t use semantic references or a turn of phrase for to advertise things. And you’re a hypocrite… For example, in this article you end it with “ultimate reasons” as to justify the article’s title… and then you end it with;
10 – “That shade of yellow is really offensive” …and for which Colman’s English mustard must a similar offender, you can only assume. Poor effort. And a bit hair trigger with the word “offensive” – so not a reason, as you say, but just an opinion.
Come on now… were you THAT stuck on finding a tenth reason!?
If you had said “it’s a shit advert in the wrong place” you’d be spot on. Most people are sensible and would ignore it (like they should) but we live in a world wehere peopel HAVE to be offended.
And then you get the court ruling which, actually, was common sense and counter productive to the campaign for them to stop it, which in itself was just daft.
Counter productive cause?
Alias Darker
just because an ad shows a thin body it doesn’t mean you have to feel attacked . you have no respect for that society you claim to have united with . you critisize society’s beauty standards but no one tells you to change your taste and your preferences just to not offend someone . it sounds ridiculous and childish .
Ditch the Label
Hi Alias, thank you for your comment. We completely support everybody – regardless of body shape and size. The issue we have is the fact that within the media, ‘beach body ready’ is only ever associated with lean, slender figures for females and broad, toned figures for men. This is problematic to those who do not fit these moulds and it creates a lot of anxiety in environments such as a beach or swimming pool. We know this because up to 50% of young people wish that they could change their appearance. In fact, 45% of young people tell us that they have been bullied because of attitudes towards their body shape/weight. This has huge implications upon self esteem and mental health, with 1 in 3 self harming as a result and 14% developing eating disorders. (Source: http://dtl-staging.org/2020/the-annual-bullying-survey-2015-is-here/)
The purpose of this article is to challenge the status quo and to show that it is OKAY to not fit the mould and to show that everybody is beach body ready.