'Are you beach body ready?' advert was not offensive or irresponsible, watchdog rules

Protein World had defended the controversial poster amid outrage in April

An advertising campaign condemned by thousands of people for “body shaming” women was not offensive or socially irresponsible, a watchdog has ruled.

“Are you beach body ready?” the now infamous yellow billboard asked, picturing a slender model in a bikini next to Protein World’s “weight loss collection” of products.

Its appearance on the London Underground in April sparked a tide of complaints, including a petition with more than 71,000 signatures demanding it be taken down because it made people “feel physically inferior”.

Demostrators marched on Hyde Park, women posed in their underwear next the poster in protest, it was satirised on Twitter and billboards were defaced, while Protein World’s supporters hit back at the “extreme feminist brigade letting off some bra-burning steam”.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had already banned the poster on unrelated regulatory grounds when the first of 378 complaints started rolling in but an investigation has now found it did not “shame” women into taking slimming supplements.

However, the advert will remain banned in its current form over concerns that its health and nutrition claims were not authorised on the EU Register.

In its ruling, the ASA said its investigation aimed to establish whether Protein World had breached rules on harm, offence and social responsibility.

Calling the model “toned and athletic”, it said the Copy Advice Team service for advertisers had deemed that the advert was “unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence” before it appeared.

ASA said that many people consider a “beach body” to be similar to the model’s physique but the phrase also had a broader meaning of how comfortable people felt with their “physical appearance” wearing swimwear.

The ruling continued: “We considered the claim ‘ARE YOU BEACH BODY READY?’ prompted readers to think about whether they were in the shape they wanted to be for the summer and we did not consider that the accompanying image implied that a different body shape to that shown was not good enough or was inferior.

“We concluded that the headline and image were unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.”

ASA ruled that although readers were “invited to think about their figures”, the poster did not shame women with different body shapes into taking slimming supplements.

“For that reason, we concluded the ad was not irresponsible,” it said.

Protein World argued that the “aspirational” campaign’s intention was to invite the viewer to consider whether they were in the shape they wanted to be and said the model was healthy and used their products.

It said it did not believe the poster implied everyone should look like the woman or that the text and image were irresponsible.

Protein World's head of global marketing, Richard Staveley, revealed the company received a bomb threat following the launch of the advert but said it had been “a brilliant campaign”.

Eating disorder charity Beat called ASA’s ruling “extremely disappointing” and maintains that it is irresponsible.

"While we recognise advertising and the media cannot cause eating disorders - they are much more complex than that - we are aware how toxic images can be to an individual,” Rebecca Field said.

"While continuing to promote a slender body image as the only one we should aspire to, the Protein World advert advertises diet products, only adding to the harmful effect it could have on those susceptible to an eating disorder.

"Every body is different and Beat will continue to campaign to see a wide variety of shapes and sizes represented in the media.”

Additional reporting by PA