To think banning this ad is outrageous?

She looks anorexic tbf
Only because normality is now overweight.

She doesn't look anorexic at all. She looks like a thin, small bone beautiful person.

She looks no different to some Olympic runners who are perfectly healthy.

Women can be small bones and very healthy as they can be bigger bone and healthy.

It is so sad that with now a population that is more overweight than not, we think it's ok to discriminate the thin ones on look only. Shame!

Totally agree. How pathetic that this has been banned.

Also, if it’s not ok to advertise using thin women, then it shouldn't be ok to advertise using fat ones either.

Why do we always have to cater for the lowest common denominator. Happens constantly now. It’s irritating.

I agree OP...
I'm not sure what I was expecting opening the ad, but that's just a slender person advertising slim cut clothes 🤷
I'm skinny/slender/trim... whatever you want yo call it. Granted, no longer like this model because I'm 50+ peri and lazy - and I am sick to death of my 'skinnyness' being commented on by mostly overweight people, pretty much daily. Because I'm not really an anomaly; my whole family are slim, my kids are slim...most of their friends are slim. It's actually 'normal' to be slim.
Illness and disability aside, MOST people should be slim. And it certainly shouldn't be strange to see us out in the wild or in advertising.

This ad is nothing like the heroine chic of the 90's.

YANBU. Until they start banning adverts that give the “impression” a model “might be unhealthily fat” I don’t see why thin models are banned tbh. Lots of ads feature plus size models - if we’re just looking at bodies and making a guess at whether we thinking they’re unhealthy, why not ban those as well.

(I’m not saying all plus size models are unhealthy, but I assume no one is saying all thin models are unhealthy either.)

Not everyone will. I'm munching through a pork pie as I type. 😃

But that image could easily be damaging to those predisposed to an eating disorder. And it really isn't hard to find an averagely slim model to show the trousers.

She looks anorexic tbf.

YANBU OP and I completely understand what you are getting at. We can’t even look at a picture of a thin person because it’s going to make us all lose our minds? She looks thin to me, she’s stunning obvs but would people really look at that pic and become immediately mentally unwell by it?

Also - double standards everywhere as there are plenty on adverts featuring ‘body positive’ overweight women and that’s not healthy, either. But I’m sure I will get flamed for that.

I remember thinking similar when everyone was kicking off about the 50 shades books - as though us women are so bloody impressionable that reading a few smutty books would make us want to be in abusive relationships. Real life is far, far more complex than that.

You can see the full ad by searching M&S ad banned and choose the Retail Gazette.

No I don't think it's unreasonable to ban it. The model is very very lean through the hips and abdomen. The "slim fit" trousers are very loose around her hips and thighs.

M&S' target audience is mostly in the UK, and I don't know any British woman that shape. Maybe some thin 16 & 17 yo athletes. Otherwise it sets an unrealistic and unattainable standard. It's just not necessary.

Paywall, can't read the article, but if the image at the top of the page is the model in question it is difficult to tell. Yes, she is very slight, but covered up in the way she is I couldn't say if she was dangerously underweight or just small.

If she is borderline anorexic, then yeah, I think it is correct to ban the advert, it's harkening back to the mid 90's when "Heroin Chic" was a thing, and is still, to a degree today.

Personally, i'd just prefer any advertising, fashion or not, just used average, everyday people you'd see in the street, but we're a long way from that, even with the few "Body positivity" models some brands use.

This seems to be the ad. YABU.

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2025/07/ms-asa-banned-advert/

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