#EveryBodysReady

#EveryBodysReady

            So I was on Tumblr when I found this post reblogged by someone I follow. The post has links to a Buzzfeed article and a petition to change the advertisement.  

            The advertisement is made by a company called Protein World. It has a yellow background with a woman in a yellow (same kind of yellow as the background) bikini. The women is skinny/slim. In big bold black text around her though it says, “Are you beach body ready?” in all caps. In the corner it says “The weight Loss collection” with a picture of Protein World’s products. But it’s small and only takes up the corner.

            There are many problems with this ad. The first and most notable is the woman’s size. That is most likely not the body you would get from using their products. In fact, most people wouldn’t be able to get a body like that.

            I’m disgusted that such an ad was allowed pass their PR department. But sadly, I’ve seen some of the tweets from Protein World and it seems to me that they don’t know how to be a proper, mature company. Their response to the backlash of their ad was not to apologize, or make a mature response. Their response was immature and childish, like a middle school student. To me, that is not a company. That is a child who thinks they are running a successful company. They’re not. They’re ruining themselves by sticking their feet in their mouths.

            I have read that the ads will be removed from the rail ways of London, where they were put up. That brings me relief. I knew many girls who were insecure about their bodies growing up in school, and I still meet women like that. I knew many who tried to gain a ‘perfect body’ by many different methods. I, myself, never tried to obtain a ‘perfect body’ as I felt it wouldn’t help me either way. I felt like I wasn’t pretty/beautiful/sexy/etc. as a teen and a part of that was caused by the gauge of beauty I grew up knowing here in the US. I’m sure it’s just the same for many young teens, female and male, all around the world. The other part was caused by bullies from school and offhand comments from adults who didn’t understand how much their comments would affect me.

            That ad can cause the same damage to a young girl’s image of themselves. We’re constantly look at media to tell us how we should look, talk, and behave. It’s what teens do. They want to fit in. They want to be cool. They want to be liked and loved, even if they have to be fake at times to achieve it. It’s just the way we are and it will take years to fix it to where we don’t feel pressured to be that model’s body that many of us can’t achieve.

            I’m just glad the ad is being removed. But I’m appalled by the company. They have called people against the ad ‘extremism’ and the CEO of the company, Arjun Seth, who I’m sure probably runs the Protein World’s twitter account has even told Channel 4 News that the critics of the advert were ‘terrorists’.

            To which I have to say, “Do you even know what a terrorist is?” Because it seems to me you don’t. He also seems to be laughing, saying that sales are increasing. This is annoying and yet I know how it works. It’s like with celebrities. They do crazy, stupid stuff and they wind up being in the news all week and more people buy their products because they’re what’s in and the latest fad. That sucks, but that’s how they do it. Bad press is good press as far as they’re concern, just so long as it makes them money. I say the best thing to do is to boycott them. Don’t buy their products and encourage others not to buy it either. If no one’s buying their products, they won’t be laughing off all this negativity like a middle schooler much longer.