How did this ad ever get approved?
This little ad has sparked one massive controversy.
The ad for fashion giant Yves Saint Laurent has been banned by the UK’s advertising watchdog for featuring an “unhealthily underweight” model.
Following a complaint that the model was too thin, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority found the ad – which appeared in Elle magazine – was irresponsible and banned it from reappearing in its current form.
Related: Why you won’t see these models on a French runway ever again.
The ad features a black and white image of a woman lying in a short black dress, with part of her chest and most of her long, thin legs visible.
The ASA said in its ruling:
“The ASA considered that the model’s pose and the particular lighting effect in the ad drew particular focus to the model’s chest, where her rib cage was visible and appeared prominent, and to her legs, where her thighs and knees appeared a similar width, and which looked very thin, particularly in light of her positioning and the contrast between the narrowness of her legs and her platform shoes.
We therefore considered that the model appeared unhealthily underweight in the image and concluded that the ad was irresponsible.”
Yves Saint Laurent did not agree that the model was unhealthily thin and Elle made no comment about the complaint, according to the ruling.
“We told the advertisers to ensure that the images in their ads were prepared responsibly,” the ASA says.
The move is encouraging, especially following the French government’s new laws banning the use of catwalk fashion models deemed to be excessively thin.
Let’s hope this decisive stance will encourage more responsible advertising.
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Top Comments
I'm so happy to see all these comments. I have struggled all of my life, teased and taunted to "put weight on" "eat more" and for being "anorexic." My mum was too. I'm healthy, I eat everyday ( more than a lot of others!) I'm just small and maybe will never put the weight on most people consider "healthy"
So sick of celebrating curvy women, and still hearing their complaints about shopping and finding their size when they have stores catering to bigger sizes. I used to have to shop at Supre as an adult because they were the only ones catering to mine.
It's so nice to read the supportive comments! And to others who feel the need to say "You're so SKINNY!" just don't. Unless you would like to be told you look fat today. IT IS THE SAME THING.
Yes yes yes
im the same
Why is it that underweight models are criticised and banned while overweight and morbidly obese models are celebrated? Obesity kills thousands more people than anorexia per year in Australia.
Possibly because underweight models often work very hard starving themselves to become so thin so that they can get work. I imagine that most obese and morbidly obese models do not work hard overeating so that they can get work. There are exceptions: some very thin people have small appetites/fast metabolisms etc and I've heard that some actors work very hard to put on weight for a role.
Obesity is a huge problem in Australia and i believe that research shows that fat-shaming is correlated with weight gain, Consequently, the aim of obese models is to encourage overweight, obese and morbidly obese people to feel good about themselves. Feeling good about oneself is linked to weight loss. In a perfect world we would have better research to support policies to prevent people becoming overweight in the first instance.
Does that answer your question, Claire, or were you just venting because you dislike obesity?
Cannot agree more!! The 'body love' movement has gone too far...overweight, obese...well can't say anything because that's body shaming. Thin and it's open slather, unhealthy/anorexic/bad roll model. What If the girl in the ad is naturally slim? She's being told that's wrong , hardly fair. How about banning overweight people (BMI 27 and above perhaps) in the interest of promoting only a healthy body in ads/modelling!?
Amen!