Are you beach body ready?

Recently the company ‘Protein World’ released an advertisement in tube stations in London. The ad shows a tall, blonde women standing in her bikini, with the caption ‘Are you beach body ready’ written beside it. This instantly sparked up controversy on social media sites, with people retaliating and calling the ad ‘discriminating’. There has already been a petition begun to take down the advertisements named ‘Remove ‘Are You Beach Body Ready’ Advertisements’. The petition states “Protein World is directly targeting individuals, aiming to make them feel physically inferior to the unrealistic body image of the bronzed model, in order to sell their product (Change.org, 2015). People took to social media to show their disapproval with the advertisement and were tweeting pictures and hash tagging #beachbodyALREADY.

Several comments have been made on the increasing anxiety that this will cause women. Many people are interpreting the ad as saying – if you don’t look like this, you’re not beach body ready. This hasn’t stopped Protein World promoting their brand and they seem to be shrugging off all these comments. The advertisement is clearly promoting their weight loss product ‘slender blend’, so are they trying to say that we need this to look like the model in the poster? That this is what a normal ‘beach body ready’ woman looks like? Generally it is a clever use of advertisement – as they say, ‘any press is good press’!

References

Change.org, (2015). .@ProteinWorld @arjun_seth: Remove ‘Are You Beach Body Ready’ Advertisements. [online] Available at: https://www.change.org/p/proteinworld-arjun-seth-remove-are-you-beach-body-ready-advertisements [Accessed 23 Apr. 2015].
The Evening Standard, (2015). ‘Are you beach body ready?’ Tube posters investigated by advertising watchdog after complaints from commuters. [online] Available at: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/are-you-beach-body-ready-tube-posters-investigated-by-advertising-watchdog-after-criticism-online-10189979.html [Accessed 23 Apr. 2015].