Ad Banned in UK for Showing Super Skinny Model
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in Britain has banned a fashion ad that shows a model who appears to be painfully underweight. Ironically, the model, whose upper arm circumference makes us think about malnutrition, appears in an ad for a clothing company called “Drop Dead.”
The British advertising publication Campaign reports that the ASA said the Drop Dead ads declared the ads “socially irresponsible” for showing a model with prominent ribs, hips and collar bones in a bikini.
The ASA is the same agency that earlier this year ordered L’Oreal to pull print ads featuring images of Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts that were so heavily Photoshopped, they were misleading. (See PDN Pulse story.)
Whether any manipulation – in posing, styling or post production– went into the creation of the Drop Dead model’s twig-like arms, jutting hipbones and globular breasts, we leave to our eagle-eyed readers to decide.
Related story
November 11th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
sadly, I have seen a few people who look like this…..
One is a woman who jogs in the park. Makes me feel so sad when I see her, as I’ve also met a few people with anorexia.
November 14th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
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November 14th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
A few thoughts:
1) When the article says “painfully underweight,” whose pain are you referring to? Her pain, your pain or somebody else’s?
2) Some people are naturally very thin (without being anorexic). Should they be prohibited from pursuing a modeling career?
3) Would the ASA declare ads “socially irresponsible” for showing a model who is very heavy?
November 15th, 2011 at 9:43 am
^—- What Dan said.
Fascism.
November 17th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Everyone can be a model. Now, depending on what the purpose is. A skinny model is free to be skinny. Like a smoker is free to self destroy. Or whatever risky addiction. Some people do not like to fasten seat belt in a car or in a bus or in a plane. At the end of the day, is the idea of using a model like that one for selling swimming suit a good -creative- idea ? I personally find it ugly.
November 18th, 2011 at 9:08 am
Models this thin are painful to the young women who, unfortunately, look to media such as this to mold beauty standards for themselves. (Some in) the fashion industry has and (all) should take responsibility for the painfully high rate of eating disorders among young women.
November 18th, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Yeah, this whole ‘beauty standards – eating disorder’ doesn’t hold water at all.
Around 500 people a year in the US die of what is classified as eating disorder. Lets be generous and say that all of them were from eating too little.
How many people die in the US die from basically eating too much? 4%0-50% of everyone. Heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and many cancers are completely curable with a properly nutritioned low calorie diet.
Just deaths from diabetes alone dwarfs eating disorder deaths.
I would bet big $$$$$ that this model will not develop diabetes if she stays the way she is.
If this type of image influences behavior, we need MORE of these images, not less.
November 18th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Yeah – what Dan said so well.
November 23rd, 2011 at 12:49 pm
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November 23rd, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Interesting note that the preview for this article says “Makes us think of a victim of famine” where in the article it’s been changed to “malnutrition”. I agree more with the former.
To answer Dan’s questions (in reverse order, because I can):
3) Maybe, but what are the chances of that actually happening? Better question: What are the chances of that happening and of women and young girls accepting that as how their bodies should look? Because that is exactly the problem we’re facing with images like this one.
2) Being a skinny chick myself ( I weigh in at all of 115 and am 5’6″) I’m one to stand up for those who are naturally very thin. The key word, though, is naturally, and there is nothing natural or healthy about this girl’s weight. Models are typically taller than I am, and I would be SHOCKED if this girl was 100lbs.
1) Yes, her pain, since it’s pretty obvious that she’s harming herself through some form of eating disorder and the pain of our society being presented someone who practices self harm as not just being acceptable, but being beautiful. It’s no different than using a model with wounds from cutting or track marks.
I say good on them for having the ad pulled. I’m a strong believer that every body is beautiful, unless someone is hurting themselves to achieve it and that is pretty obviously what is happening here.
November 23rd, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Teknari, you’re a pretty abhorrent human being if your really think that. Over 8 million people in the US alone are thought to be suffering from eating disorders, most of whom are 12-18. I’m not sure where you’re getting your statistics from, but according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 20% of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems. But they won’t get diabetes so you’re right, we totally should be encouraging it.
November 25th, 2011 at 7:07 am
The ad has achieved it’s purpose and has got people talking about it. I have just added to that. What a great bit of marketing by Drop Dead