ASA's 2015 Most Complained Campaigns #5

Coming in at number 5 on the Advertising Standards Authorities Top 10 most complained about campaigns in 2015 is Protein World UK. This campaign gathered 380 complaints throughout a short period for the message and photographs they the company were displaying on their advertisement materials.

The campaign used women with the perfect toned athletic body and spread the message "Are you beach body ready?"  and was displayed on the London Underground. This Campaign created a protest in Hyde Park, London, which was created to go against the advert over claims that it was "body-shaming" and that it "aimed to make individuals feel physically inferior to the unrealistic image of the bronzed model".

A Change.org petition campaigning for the removal of the advert reached almost 50,000 signatures within just a few days and attracted condemnation from high profile figures such as TV presenter Susannah Reid. Beat, the charity that supports people with eating disorders also criticised the campaign. They called it "one more example of how we are subjected daily to what we are expected to accept and aspire to as the 'body ideal"'.

Before the ASA even began investigating the complaints that a poster featuring a woman in a bikini was offensive, they told Protein World that due to its concerns about a range of health and weight loss claims, then the ad could not appear again in its current form. The ASA recognised that "beach body" was a relatively well understood term that for some people had connotations of a toned, athletic physique similar to the image of the model in the ad. They also considered that it also had a broader meaning - that of feeling sufficiently comfortable and confident with one's physical appearance to wear swimwear in a public environment.  The ASA concluded, however, that that ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.

Please leave a comment discussing your views and opinions on the London Underground poster campaign for Protein world? Do you feel they were body shaming? Would you have signed the petitions against them?