‘Irresponsible’ M&S ad gets banned for promoting ‘unhealthily thin’ models
The UK’s advertising watchdog has upheld a complaint that Marks and Spencers used an “unhealthily thin” model to advertise clothes on its app.
In its ruling on the M&S ad, the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) said the model “appeared unhealthily thin” and concluded that the ad was “irresponsible.”
“The pose of the model and the choice of clothing meant the ad gave the impression that the model was unhealthily thin,” the watchdog said, ruling that its violated the CAP code.
The CAP code states that “marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society.”
A University of Toronto study on magazine ads featuring female fashion models found that ‘skinny women’ in ads had an immediate negative impact on a woman’s self-esteem.
The ASA received four complaints about various M&S images, but upheld only one and banned its use in the retail giant’s app.
M&S said its inclusive women’s wear clothing represented a full spectrum of sizes, ranging from eight to 24, adding that they took concerns about the depiction of body image in their ads “very seriously”.
The FTSE100 giant has since amended the ads and removed the specific images.
The decision by the UK’s advertising watchdog follows a number of similar ad bans earlier this year.
Next, Mango and Warehouse ads all received complaints and bans for various images related to ‘unhealthily thin’ models.
Earlier this year, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders published a report describing the “alarming” rise in disorders such as anorexia and bulimia over the past decade, adding that eating disorders have “on of the largest treatment gaps in modern healthcare”.
Over one in ten 17-19-year-olds, and a fifth of young women, have an eating disorder, according to a 2023 survey.