Plastic surgery, out of sight but not out of mind
Cosmetic surgery purveyors will be banned from targeting ads at under 18-year-olds. No more facelifts and perfect breasts on social media, newspapers, broadcast programmes and posters. The regulators took this decision following concerns about teenagers struggling with body image pressures.
The Advertising Standards Authority has been candid about the impact that advertisement can have on wellbeing, having previously banned sexist and gender stereotyping ads. Welcome news if you remember the Protein World ad asking women on the tube if they were “beach body ready”.
Similar ad bans already exist for tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food.
We should protect teenagers from damaging and unrealistic stereotypes about beauty and weight. But we need to ask if it is a good strategy to ban whatever it is, of the moment, that we don’t like.