At number 10 on the Advertising Standards Authority's list of Top 10 most complained about advertising campaigns of 2015 is Omega Pharma Ltd. With the advertising campaign bringing in 136 complaints it resulted with being Upheld and remove it.
The advertising campaign using TV, YouTube and VOD for the medical device, XLS Medical, featured two female friends exchanging text messages about losing weight in time for the summer holidays. One of the women says she has lost weight thanks to XLS Medical, which she says could help users lose up to three times more weight than dieting alone. The second actress then looks in the mirror frowning and says "Urgh. I'll never fit into my holiday wardrobe". At the end of the advert, both women are shown on holiday posing together for a photo. The company said the final image of the women showed they had reached their “healthy target weight”, with both having a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 19 kg/m2.
Due to this, the ASA told the company its adverts must not appear again in their current form. The Advertising Standards Authority said in a ruling “We told Omega Pharma Ltd to take care to ensure their products were advertised in a socially responsible way,”. In a statement, the company said it had never meant to “cause offence, simply to highlight the variety of healthy weight-loss and weight-maintenance goals and motivations XLS-Medical can support with”. "Across all of our communications we ensure that we represent a range of body shapes, ages and sizes, to acknowledge where our consumers might be on their own weight loss journey. As part of ad development we work with an independent weight management consultant to ensure we deliver positive and appropriate messages,” it said.
The company claimed the exchange of text messages portrayed normal preparations for a holiday, which a change in diet may be part of. Yet ASA said the worry of the actress that she may not fit into her holiday wardrobe was likely to be interpreted by viewers as meaning she needed to lose weight, despite her already slim and healthy appearance.
The complainants, which included representative body for naturists in the UK British Naturism, also said the actresses used appeared to be under 18, increasing the likelihood of appeal to this age group.
Yet defending itself, Omega Pharma said the actresses featured were aged 24 and 29.
The company said they were representative users of the medical device, seeking an effective “helping hand” for weight management ahead of their holiday.
Leave a comment below if you agree with the complaints that were made against this advert. Do you agree that it should have been removed? Do you believe that it creates an unhealthy body image, especially with young girls?
The company claimed the exchange of text messages portrayed normal preparations for a holiday, which a change in diet may be part of. Yet ASA said the worry of the actress that she may not fit into her holiday wardrobe was likely to be interpreted by viewers as meaning she needed to lose weight, despite her already slim and healthy appearance.
Yet defending itself, Omega Pharma said the actresses featured were aged 24 and 29.
The company said they were representative users of the medical device, seeking an effective “helping hand” for weight management ahead of their holiday.
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