Should Adverts Normalising People Of Unhealthy Weight Be Banned?

[naomi24]

//The boss of online clothing brand Snag has told the BBC it gets more than 100 complaints a day that the models in its adverts are "too fat".  The brand was cited in an online debate over whether adverts showing "unhealthily fat" models should be banned after a Next advert, in which a model appeared "unhealthily thin", was banned.//

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2xjd41g33o

 

Sizes from Snag range from 4-38.   The Next lady I think looks fine, but apart from that in employing obese models is the fashion industry normalising and hence encouraging unhealthy lifestyles? 

[ToraToraTora]

They go from one extreme to the other, just settle in the middle using normal standard people who are not perfect. No need to have the elephants or the stick insects.

[Untitled]

i don't think obesity is encouraged by acknowledging that it exists. most people look nothing like the "normal" clothing models who are always thin or muscular and curvy and gorgeous. 
 

banning something like this is very creepy i think. 

[Prudie]

This is such a sensitive subject - the Snag model says she wants to help at least one person accept their weight. She is clearly still young and with the body art feels comfortable in her looks now BUT I don't believe there is one person who wants to be this weight and will be happy about it once they get older, just from the health implications. When she's 50+ she won't be so positive.

The Next model I've seen the photo before. How anyone can think that's OK, it's clearly been photoshopped to make her thigh/leg even thinner. Imagine that girl bare, horrendously thin. I'm glad it was banned.

[curlyfries81]

The Next model is clearly naturally lean / slender but strangely that seems to offend some people. 

Promoting models who are morbidly obese is probably more harmful as it sends a messaage out that it's normal to be extremely big and doesn't matter about all the inevitable health issues that will inevitably accompany it. 

The difference between the two models is that one looks perfectly healthy if extremely fortunate in her stature and frame, whereas the other one is a heart attack waiting to happen.

[naomi24]

// the Snag model says she wants to help at least one person accept their weight.//

 

That's the danger really, Prudie.  That people will accept their weight rather than try to do something about it.

[barry1010]

I have seen a lot of obese bodies, young and old, and none of them look like the bodies of the obese models I see in adverts. They are all very heavily filtered and unrealistic.

I agree it is wrong to use these models just as it is wrong to use the 'heroin chic' models. By all means use a range of different sized models within healthier limits, or scrap the filters.

[Prudie]

The Next model is naturally lean and slender (that's why she's been picked as a model in the first place). The offence is altering the photo to make her look even thinner. That's an insult to her for starters (and the body area in question was the legs, not all over).

[Old_Geezer]

Normalising may be unwise, but advertising to the market segment is fair enough.

[Old_Geezer]

However, should they be normalising body abuse in such forms as ink doodles and piercing ?

[Deskdiary]

My god - she's absolutely enormous. Rather than hoping her gargantuan size will help other accept their fatness, what she should be doing is losing weight as she's unhealthy.

 

I don't buy the 'I'm happy being fat' cobblers. Nobody would rather be fat than normal - they may say they're happy but then cry themselves to sleep everynight.

[Atheist]

They may not be happy being fat; I'm sure that those who would advocate being fat are a very small percentage of those who actually are fat. But if they can earn from modelling stuff which large people can wear then I don't see why they should be banned from being seen. I'm sure that many ABers are overweight, and I doubt it they would like being told not to let themselves be seen.

[davebro3]

advertising sucks - period

(I bought Wiltshire Farm Foods & the meals don't look anything like they show on telly!)

[barry1010]

I remember the days when women over a size 18 had to shop in Evans and similar shops. Chain stores like M&S  just didn't stock them - and 'fashion' stores didn't really go above a 14.

Is it a coincidence that  very large sizes are now freely available and obesity has soared, or is the high street simply meeting demand?

 

[Atheist]

I think that fat women probably feel happier finding clothes that don't look like a sack or bell-tent or those floppy things that I think used to be sporty and which have string to tie up the waist. I don't think any woman would see the ad and think, 'Wow, I  must put on some weight so that I can look cool.'

Trump goes around looking fat, but I doubt that many men would want to emulate his look.

[jourdain2]

She is terribly fat, isn't she?  Very unhealthy. Stick-thin models are very unhealthy the other way.  How about stores/brands, sticking to 'middling'?  

[barry1010]

Do they use obese men in adverts? Men with beer bellies? Especially clothing adverts

[douglas9401]

Men tend to be portrayed as thick rather than fat.

[bednobs]

Plenty barry.