@ProteinWorld vs. "sympathisers for fatties"

The Drum

Oh, dear. A fitness supplement brand in the UK has taken it upon itself to become the patron saint of body shaming.

The Drum reports that, faced with online criticism over its "are you beach body ready?" ad campaign, Protein World decided not only to be unapologetic, but downright nasty:

Twitter

That particular exchange was started by blogger Laurence Hebbard, who wrote about their confrontational social media engagement on Social Media London. Here are some of the curated exchanges:

Someone even made a fake Dove response ad:

As of this writing, the protein shake maker is completely unapologetic. They seem quite happy to bask in the negative publicity (as well as the many Tweets of support from fans).

Is this an example of the tired cliché "there's no such thing as bad publicity"? That remains to be seen. While this kind of obnoxious brand behaviour is bound to ingratiate it to a certain segment of the fitness market, they're also trying to sell weight loss products. Is it really such a great idea to shame people who might actually be interested in such things?

Adopting "being an asshole" as a brand strategy is a risky move, but not an unprecedented one. Now it's just a matter of seeing how many assholes are willing to self-identify by buying the stuff.

Using tired "beer goggles" clichés to sell taxi service

Via Daily Mail 

You know, we advertising practitioners really should adopt something like the popular conception of the Hippocratic Oath, starting with the words, "First, do no harm."

We're here to represent our clients, but we are also contributing to the language and imagery of popular culture and media. When we create something that gets attention by promoting stereotypes — or worse — unearned scorn towards our fellow humans, then we are being irresponsible.

Via Daily Mail 

These bar ads, by West Quay Cars taxi company of Southampton, UK, are an example of this. They use the hackneyed old idea of beer goggles to imply that this large woman and tacky man are unworthy of love.

Note the difference. The man is a cartoonish stereotype of a disco-era lounge lizard. The woman, on the other hand, is mostly implied to be unattractive because she is fat.

The Southampton University Feminist Society wrote an open letter to the advertiser, stating:

This advert is a form of body policing and an example of fatphobia. It is making fun of someone because of the way they look. This objectifying, judging lens is something we are well aware of in the media, for both genders, but especially for women. Therefore seeing the female version of this advert by itself, as it first was, some members branded it sexist. It was only later that the male version was posted. Members immediately voiced their dislike of the male version also, noting again that it was an unacceptable form of body-policing.

The company issued the standard non-apology:

"We apologise for any offence that may have been caused by either of the posters,” manager Lee Haynes told The Tab. 

"We recognised that the campaign may be controversial, but in our opinion, our obligation to try to reduce the amount of lives devastated by drink or drug drivers ever year was overriding. 

"We refute the claim that either our advertising or West Quay cars as a company is sexist or discriminatory in anyway.

They mentioned that 16 of their staff of 22 are women.

I'm sure that some of their best friends are also Black.

Related: The goggles do nothing (Osocio.org)

Coke celebrates bikini weather, internet responds predictably

The image above turned up today on Ads Of The World. Created by agency Phibious, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, it's a sexed-up — but mostly harmless — transformation of the brand into bikinis.

Within an hour of posting, AOTW's Ivan Raszl pointed out that there was already a parody version going around:

Posted on Facebook by Carlos Ríos, the caption reads "a real Coca-Cola's summer model, shall be like."

This is a common reaction to "junk food" advertising, familiar to readers of Adbusters:

Do you see the problem? Yes, soft drinks and fast food are fattening. But do we need to make fun of people's bodies to make this point?

PETA apparently thinks so, too:

Pic via Buzzfeed

It's another example how conflicting priorities and sensitivities make social media complicated. People who are against the corporate food industry want to make a statement about promoting unhealthy consumption, but in doing so they cross a line into "body shaming" that's hurtful to people other than their intended targets of derision.