Is this eating disorder ad too sexy?

Via Ads of The World

It's a serious question. This woman has the typical idealized body of a model, and despite the scary body painting, the portrayal is undeniably drawing attention to her curves and bare skin.

When I think about eating disorders, I try to imagine looking in the mirror and seeing a funhouse reflection of myself that is always bulgier and heavier than reality.  That's the really scary thing about dysmorphia, as opposed to just wanting to lose weight: it's a chronic mental illness that can kill, because people who have it can't see what they're doing to their bodies:

That's a corporate social responsibility billboard that No-li-ta posted in Milan during the city's 2010 Fashion Week. Shorty after the campaign was shot, the woman, French model, actress and blogger Isabelle Caro, died at age 28.

So there are a number of things to consider here:

1. Is the sexualized presentation of an idealized female body just adding to the problem of media-influenced body image problems?

2. Is the statistic misleading or confusing? While the US National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Eating Disorders says that "91% of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted 'often' or 'always'," they give the statistic for the actual mental disorder of anorexia at "an estimated 0.5 to 3.7 percent of women." So how are we defining "eating disorder"?

3. What does the Enosh ad want the viewer to do, be aware that eating disorders are bad? There is little here to help those suffering from EDs, or to help their loved ones understand or intervene.

It may seem mean to criticize a well-meaning ad like this, but as a career social marketer I struggle with these same questions in every new campaign I approach.

Cross-posted at Osocio

Weight loss ads appear on pro-anorexia Tumblr posts

Buzzfeed is a funny place. Although still dominated by lazily-recycled content, it is continuing to build a reasonable stable of actual writers doing interesting work.

Staff writer Katie Notopoulos recently discovered a disturbing connection between "Pro-Ana" Tumblr posts (where anorexia sufferers proudly share their emaciated pictures) and targeted ads for a diet program.

It turns out that these keyword-targeted ads point to FatLossFactor.com. Ms. Notopoulos notes that they appear to be targeting the words "thinspo" (short for "thin-spiration") and "starve":

The ads are targeted by someone with an intimate knowledge of how the pro-ana Tumblr community works, exploiting the types of tags popular among young women encouraging one another in eating disorders, and targeting the ultra-thin images they find most appealing. In many instances, the ads are reblogged by others in the community, amplifying the ad’s message further. 

She also found FatLossFactor.com ads linked to the keyword “scars”:

Eating disorders and the direct self-harm of "cutting" are often linked, and are believed to stem from the same types of anxiety.

When contacted by Buzzfeed, FatLossFactor.com founder insisted he was not knowingly involved in placing the pro-ana ads for his products, and said he had instructed his vendor to "blacklist the affiliate" when he learned of the campaign. (However, he added that it was not possible for him to determine the identity of the affiliate based on the information he had.) The ads were placed by third parties using the ClickBank affiliate network.

This isn't the first time social media ads have shown up on pro-anorexia posts. In another Buzzfeed staff post, Amy Odell discovered that by purchasing the keywords "thigh" and "Gap" on Twitter (the latter presumably to stick it to the competition) Levi's accidentally endorsed a bunch of Pro-Ana "thigh gap" posts:

Internet advertising can be a sketchy business.