Record number of takedowns of advertising with slim clothing models

This year, the Advertising Ombudsman, RO, has struck down more advertisements for featuring extremely slim models, something like P3 News was the first to report on.

So far this year, seven advertisements have been dropped because the models looked too thin. RO writes that the advertisements were designed “without a proper sense of social and professional responsibility”.

That figure can be compared with previous years where between zero and three advertisements were dropped, since RO started keeping statistics on this year in 2009.

– We see a tendency for the fashion industry to use ever slimmer models, many times young, which of course is not suitable when they are aimed at young people. It is an ideal that is harmful to strive for, with extremely thin body ideals, says advertising ombudsman Elisabeth Trotzig to TV4 Nyheterna.

The companies that were dropped this year are H&M, Zara, Nelly and L’oreal, where HM has been dropped four of the times.

“Decent”

Body activist Karin Kajjan Andersson, 39, thinks that the development of ever slimmer models is worrying and believes that the clothing companies bear the responsibility.

– They know their responsibility and use it in the opposite way. They know about the impact they have, how many people they reach and know the power of images. Despite that, they go for an extremely narrow, eating-disordered ideal, says Karin “Kajjan” Andersson to TV4 Nyheterna.

– You get tired and despair, it’s worth it, she says.

At the same time, she urges consumers to mark against the clothing companies so that they choose to market their products with a wide variety of healthy bodies.

– You mustn’t forget that the companies’ goal is to make money and they will do what we as customers signal, she continues.

HM declines an interview but writes in an email to TV4 Nyheterna that they “take feedback, have followed up every single case and always strive to develop and become better.”

Nelly.com declines an interview but writes in an email to TV4 Nyheterna about RO’s conviction that they “learn lessons from this case.”