Sadiq Khan shouldn't be able to tell us what is an unhealthy body

[feellikeahugefailure]

So the London Mayer has banned adverts with “Unhealthy or Unrealistic” body images. Doesn't this just all feed into people these days unaware of what a healthy body image is? This woman is in great shape and looks very healthy to me.

Sorry if there has been a post on this, I find the advanced search here not that great.

Oh, and if we want to talk about ASA banned ads for "unhealthy" thin models, here's a Gucci ad that was banned. I believe this probably more in line with what Sadiq Khan is referring to, not the bikini body one.

While I do know girls who are naturally very slender (usually they aren't about 5 ft 10 granted), they usually have a bit more pink to their cheek and a healthy glow than these girls (again, could be photoshop, although why you would want your models to look like wax I don't know).

Well said Laser.

One last time It's not the model, it's the message that's the problem!

It's not the model, it's the message that's the problem!

The message was just plain stupid. You can tell it was thought up by a couple of misogynistic blokes with not much between their ears.

I think the issue is that, that advert does not imply 'you can only go to the beach if you look like this'.

I don't feel it does, but can appreciate that some people have interpreted it like that.

But if that's not the message you get from it, it seems a bit daft. Because all adverts imply you should want to be a certain way.

Bran if the add was for bathing suits for example, i wouldn't see an issue. Most people need some kind of swimwear to go the beach...it makes sense to be part of the "readiness". But this is for weight loss supplements. What does weight have to do with how ready you are for the beach or not?

Uh, if you don't think the message of the advert is that you should be slim to go to the beach, what do you think the message is then?

It asks: 'are you beach ready?'
It encourages you to buy a product for weight loss.
Therefore, preparing for the beach = losing weight.
The model is there to illustrate what beach readiness looks like - slim.

If you don't think the advert is equating being ready for the beach with being slim then please tell me how you think it hopes to promote a weight loss supplement? What are the advertisers suggesting that the connection between their weight loss product and being 'beach ready' actually is?

The message for me was 'our products make you slim' using the 'women always (or rather almost always) diet before a holiday' angle.

Women, in general, do put extra effort in leading up to a holiday.

I am glad the advert was banned. It was misleading.

However I don't feel they were saying 'you must like this to be acceptable on a beach' nor do I feel body shamed by it.

We all interpret things differently. Body shaming was not my interpretation.

But as I say, I do understand why some people feel it is.

Also I don't see how it's and different to all the other adverts for weight loss.

In all honesty I think the whole advertising regulations need looking at. But I didn't feel body shamed.

I thought this thread and the SK ban was about the 'image', but posters here seem to be arguing its not the image but the slogan. Confused?

When I read the slogan it suggests to me I should think about the summer, going to the beach and wearing a bikini, all of which most people do. It then offers a weight loss product to consider should I deem myself to want to lose weight before then. Again something a lot of women think of doing. Should I not want to lose weight why should I be offended?

The picture is a pretty girl in a bikini, imo that's exactly the sort of image you get on millions of adverts.

I dont like this PC culture when everyone thinks they have a right to not be offended.

Peachpudding agree wholeheartedly.

I'm a curvy woman and always will be. I could do with losing a stone or two but I am healthy, with no medical problems. Many of my family are the same.

On the flip side, I have relatives who are naturally very thin and can't put weight on. They too are healthy.

The bottom line is, I don't think it is easy to classify a specific body type as "unhealthy" and therefore I feel SK's reasons for a ban on adverts like this are wrong.

FWIW, I don't particularly like seeing size 0 models, I would like to see more variation in body sizes on the catwalk. But would I want a ban on them? I am not so sure. I am all for freedom of speech and when you start banning this, and banning that... It is a slippery slope.

The issue is particularly with advertisements in the London tube, where people can't just ignore them (unless they never want to take the tube). It's not about banning models, it's about socially responsible advertisements.

It was not a socially responsible advertisement, either in the false claims it makes or in its implication. And the diet industry, like the cigarette and alcohol industry, should be held to higher standards of advertising, because of the potential for harm.

There are loads of restrictions on what can or cannot be shown in TV, newspaper and magazine advertisements, why not the same for tube ads?

On TV when you see adverts for skimpy clothes etc you might have a 'plus sized model used but in real life I see very few people who look like that either. I don't know how they do it but its almost like they use skinny plus sized women. Maybe its photoshop again.

Oh, oh, I have just read the most amazing poem about the original ad. The poet, Brian Bilston, has published it online, so I hope he's OK if I reproduce it here and credit it:

O DO NOT ASK IF I AM BEACH BODY READY
O do not ask
if I am beach body ready.

Observe how the folds
of my stomach ripple
like the wind-pulled waves.

Feel these pale buttocks,
smoothed by the sand-grains
of time.

Note these milk-white limbs,
useless and stranded,
washed up whalebones.

Consider the tufts of hair
which sprout on my shoulders
like sea-grass.

And listen to the lapping
of my socks
at the shores of my sandals.

And you ask me
if I am beach body ready?