To think banning this ad is outrageous?

[JadeyLauraPie]

As a society are we so emotionally fragile and immature now that we can't handle seeing someone thin without going off the rails and being at risk of making unhealthy choices to aspire to fashion? There's jabs everywhere for God's sake and somehow m&s are being taken to task about this : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/23/ms-advert-banned-for-featuring-unhealthily-thin-model/ why are we all treated as though we can't think for ourselves and make decisions that are right for us? I also strongly resent the notion that people who are thin are unhealthy. I don't even think anyone in the public cares? It's just such a non issue.. I wouldn't call the model unhealthy either, I'm Slavic and by our standards that's a pretty normal physique. I'm so fed up with how molly coddled we have become. Aibu?

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Nope

Paywall

This seems to be the ad. YABU.

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

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.

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.

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.

She looks anorexic tbf.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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!

These advertising standards were brought in for a reason. A decade ago (and more) the way models were used perpetuated an “ideal” which was unattainable for most women, and teenage girls in particular were overly influence by them. Anyone who thinks the rules are ridiculous clearly wasn’t around in the 90s and 00s where anyone over a size 6 was considered fat and the “lollipop” model (so thin their head was hugely disproportionate to their body) was very much en vogue. You can talk about molly coddling and ridicule the standards if you like, clearly you aren’t the one those rules were brought in to protect.

There is no rule about using thin models, but it is the way this model is posed, accentuating collar bones and thin legs etc, that has seen it fall foul of the advertising. The ridiculous thing is, photographers and advertisers know the rules, they flout them for clicks.

Olympic runners aren’t posed in a way that accentuates their physique nor held up as a beauty standard.

I was born in 84 so very much was ‘around’ in the 90’s, but alas, me and my friends managed to get through it without crumbling into a pitiful pile on the floor every time we opened a magazine or saw adverts with celebrities and models who were thinner then us, fancy that.

She doesn’t look anorexic at all. Slim and fine with it imo. No idea why they banned this.

She looks normal sized to me.

As a mother of a pre teen daughter who is hovering on the edge of an eating disorder, I’m pleased ads like this are banned.

For all those wringing their hands, here’s an example of how plenty of thin models are used by M&S in their advertising, and none of these are banned.

https://www.marksandspencer.com/l/women/dresses?page=2

Ooh look, another one who thinks they are the main character.

She may be very slim but she's also fucking gorgeous. Her face does not look overly slim (haggard) which suggests that her figure is not from starving herself

I think it’s more about how that photo makes her look weirdly proportioned. From one picture it is hard to assess if she is a healthy weight. On balance they were probably right to ban this one.

Mmmm I love a pork pie!

I have a friend who has anorexia. She’s had it most of her adult life. We’ve spoken in depth about it and, from her perspective, it’s an incredibly complex disorder that has a lot more to it than simply wanting to be thin. She knows she is underweight, but she can’t help but restrict her eating. For her, it’s a form of control.

Young girls who are vulnerable to this sort of thing can unfortunately easily access images of very underweight women if they so choose. The argument for banning this ad, therefore, does not hold up to scrutiny.

Very low self esteem is at the root of eating disorders. The best thing we can do for young girls in this regard is to keep them off social media until they’re mature enough.

YANBU. It shouldn't be banned.

I saw her recently and her slimness didn't even occur to me, and I'm not slim. Wish I was. I think she's still on their website?

There are lots of petite women. There are many Japanese people living in the area where I'm from and there are a lot of slim & small framed people amongst them.

This. You either ban them all or none imo.

BMI testing perhaps. Only allowed in the healthy range