Eating Disorders and Advertising

        It is no secret that models are beyond skinny, but how skinny is too skinny? Most supermodels are unhealthy and have bodies that the average girl will never have, however these are the standards that females are looking to be able to achieve. Heidi Klum is not only a Victoria Secret Angel she is one of today’s’ the most know supermodels; but should we consider her a role model considering she is 5’9” and only weighs 119 pounds.

        Many people look at the models in advertisements as an example of what they are supposed to look like. If it’s an ad for make-up then, some people try to apply their make-up to look the same. If the ad is for swim suits, we think that we are supposed to look like the model when we are wearing a swim suit. The fact is that most of us will never look like a swim suit model, but advertising reinforces the perfect body image again and again, and this has lead to an overwhelming amount of people, especially females with eating disorders.

("Puch up halter," 2011)

         It is estimated that 24 million American are struggling with an eating disorder. And out of those 24 million people 20 percent of them will die as a result of this disease ("Facts about eating," ).  These numbers sound serious but most people do not know just how serious eating disorders are or how common they can be amongst the people we spend time with everyday. A way to look at it is one of every five females and one of every nine males has an eating disorder. An anonymous poll taken from a group of girls at the University of Texas revealed that 39 of 128 girls were struggling with an eating disorder, now that hits close to home.

         However we can not blame all eating disorder on advertising, steps have been taken to insure that advertisements are being responsible with the message they are sending to the consumers. On May 6, 1998 the Advertising Standards Authority condemned, Accurist a London watch brand, as an irresponsible advertiser after the launch of their new campaign that featured an overly thin model with a watch half way up her arm, the headline reading “Put Some Weight On.” The company quickly made adjustments to the campaign using maniacs instead of real models (Campaign, 1998).

(Campaign, 1998)

Work Cited



Facts about eating disorders. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=950

Puch up halter. (2011). [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.victoriassecret.com/ss/Satellite?ProductID=1265421297318&c=Page&cid=1297687982306&pagename=vsdWrapper

Staff. (1998). Accurist "put some weight on" ad condemned as irresponsible. Campaign, Retrieved from http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/40311/Accurist-Put-weight-on-ad-condemned-irresponsible/