Shockingly underweight model in TV ad

[IdaPrentice]

Has anyone seen the TV ad for Dylon (of all things)? - it features two female models, the first (with afro hair) is wearing a loose top / pant suit so it's hard to tell, but seems pretty thin, but the second, wearing red, is so so thin. Her arms just go in a straight line, no curve of any kind of muscle, she's bordering on skeletal, her face looks gaunt too.

I just saw the ad for the second time - by coincidence I'd just read an article (think it was on BBC news website) about how fashion houses have moved away from 'body positivity' and plus size models, and thin is back. The theory is this is partially influenced by all the Hollywood stars on Ozempic.

This is so unhealthy to put on TV as the kind of female beauty that everyone should aspire to. I really thought we'd moved past it now. Depressing.

@IamnotwhouthinkIam yes I much prefer the athletic Cindy Crawford shape but models are much leaner now. When you look back Kate Moss isn't even that thin compared to more recent models she was just more petite in general.

She doesn’t look shockingly underweight to me. Just very slim.

Who is the target audience for this hugely obese woman would you say?

@wipeywipe Very much depends on the brand. I had a friend who modelled for a big London agency and worked with designer/fashion week brands and she said a lot of models struggled with their hip measurements. For some of the high end brands 34 inch wouldn’t count as a Size 6 hip. High street of course is a different matter!

She has the ectomorph body type and very great height of the majority of models.

Why do you keep describing her in such dehumanising terms?

@IamnotwhouthinkIam I used to model & yes hips are an issue because often if you are taller you just have a bigger bone structure & you can't diet away bones. But I'm sure 34inch hips were always considered small but maybe I'm misremembering. I was underweight BMI but it was natural as I was young. I wouldn't be like that now.

@ThoroughlyModernNotMillie The advert is obviously aimed at the black community. I remember another advert aimed at the black community about six years ago that lots of women on MN were criticising saying it was disgusting and why would anyone ever buy that product. Except all the black women I knew loved the advert.
Just accept you are not the target audience and ignore it.

Maybe a hugely obese woman like me?

I’d like to see more models who have a BMI of 21-24 rather than all either skinny or obese.

Both look fine to me. Just slight builds. I wouldn't say either look underweight.

As you say, Kate Moss was fairly unique at 5”6 so she actually didn’t look as slim as some of the taller models, though she’s always used as the famous “example”. And definitely, so many of the “girls” who want to do fashion week now look very slim again indeed - arms, thighs, bust, waist.

It’s those pesky hips that most adult women can’t slim down enough because we are designed to pass babies through a birth canal! Hence the popularity of trans models - or young teenage girls who havent completely finished puberty and get discarded from high fashion by their late teens as their hips grow 😡

She is a massively obese woman, it's factual. But presumably you think it's ok to call the Dylon model, who is factually a normal size, too skinny, unhealthy, abnormal etc as people have done on here?
You say it's aimed at black people but I can tell you that not all black people think being hugely overweight is desirable or aspirational and would question why that particular woman was chosen.

@ThoroughlyModernNotMillie how can you say the model is factually a normal size?

I think that they’ve picked models who are very tall and slim when most ads will use women who are slim but normal height. If I had to guess, they will mainly had catwalk work because of their height
Using tall women makes the clothes look more striking because there’s more fabric so the contrast in colour looks more pretty.
Don’t forget that we live in the era of AI and it’s possible that the images have been manipulated or created from scratch for artistic reasons.

I gravitate toward films of the 30s-60s. Before the obesity epidemic began.

Footage from public scenes is so instructive. What we consider normal now is downright obese.

Is the Extra advert supposed to be desirable or aspirational? The other adverts in the series don't seem to be. I'm obese, should I be banished from TV?

This is not true. Back then women's frames were smaller because of lack of decent food. My gran was fairly slim, but even when she put weight on and had visible fat when she could no longer walk at 90 years old, she was still a fairly small clothes size.
What we consider normal in women has not changed.
What has changed is we consider fat children normal, when many children are fat. I also think most people fail to recognise that most men are fat.

This.
I know a lot of healthy people who are thin like her.

@slashlover Not all products are advertised in an aspirational way.

That is not normal, although I suspect their might have been some image manipulation going on because those shoulders do not look real to me

That's what I was saying, I don't think the advert is supposed to be desirable or aspirational. It's gum.

We have commented on this. She looks like her body has been digitally stretched!

She just looks normally slim to me.

Unhealthy is certainly the word for grown women pausing an ad so they can more thoroughly critique another woman’s body.