Demi Lovato is certainly not one to shy away from passionately speaking out about important issues.
And her latest Instagram story is no exception.
The singer shared a series of images on her story over the weekend, taking aim at a ridiculous body-shaming ad for the RPG app, Game of Sultans, which appeared on her feed.
As depicted in Demi’s screenshots, the ad included a side-by-side picture of two animated characters; one was described as “obese,” while the other was labelled as “pretty.” Another photo showed the characters’ “diets”.
“Why is this fat shaming bullsh*t on my feed?” Demi wrote. “So many things wrong with this ad.”
Demi, whose struggle with eating disorders and body image has been widely reported and candidly spoken about by the singer herself, went on to discuss the harm the ad could cause, referencing the "diet culture" perpetuated by Instagram.
“You can be ‘pretty’ at any weight,” she continued. “This is absolutely harmful to anyone who is easily influenced by societal pressures put on us from the diet culture to constantly be losing weight in a world that teaches us to equate our value and worth with the way we look — and especially anyone recovering from an eating disorder.”
Demi then addressed Instagram directly, calling for the potentially triggering content to be removed immediately. “With how aware people are becoming of mental health and mental illnesses, I expect you guys to know better by allowing this advertisement to be allowed on your app,” she added. “And shame on the game.”
The ad was later removed, and in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, an Instagram spokesperson apologised.
“We’re sorry. This ad was approved by mistake. We reviewed it again and removed it from future delivery in people’s feeds,” the statement read.
Demi later tweeted to encourage her fans to “always speak up for what you believe in!”
Demi was hospitalised last year for a drug overdose, believed to be heroin, after which she made a statement about her mental health.
“I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction,” she wrote on Instagram.
“What I’ve learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet.”
Top Comments
Of course they took action if a celebrity made a comment. But us, non-celebrity, might just wipe under the carpet.
Good on her. I wonder though, if it wasn’t a celebrity who made the complaint whether they would have acted so fast or even at all to remove it.
My thoughts exactly.
Oh that's exactly it. When ads for that game pop up on instagram, there's usually like 50-100 comments or so. Almost all of them are saying the exact same thing as Demi and no one has called this app or its developers out until Demi did it. I mean on the one hand, it's good that she used her platform to bring it to attention, but the people speaking about her doing so also need to realize that she is not the first person to post a complaint about the game ad... in fact she's like the 674th person probably.