AANA sets standard for body image
The AANA today launched an updated Code of Ethics Practice Note, which will assist advertisers to understand how the Code of Ethics applies to the portrayal of body image in advertising. The Practice Note will be applied by the Ad Standards Community Panel in making its determinations.
The AANA said that with more advertisers increasingly using models and other influencers in the social media space, the update serves as a timely reminder to ensure advertising is not associated with an unrealistic body image.
The new guidance applies to Section 2.6 of the AANA Code of Ethics (the Code) which prohibits advertising which depicts material contrary to prevailing community standards on health and safety.
Advertising and marketing communication must not portray an unrealistic ideal body image by portraying body shapes or features that are unrealistic or unattainable through healthy practices. For example, an unrealistic ideal body image may occur where the overall theme, visuals or language used in the advertisement imply that a particular body shape is required to use the product or service.
Says Simone Brandon (pictured above), director of policy and regulatory affairs, AANA: “We know from our Advertising Sentiment Index research that body image in advertising is a community concern and the AANA is committed to ensuring that advertising does not exacerbate the problem, by setting a standard that advertising must not promote an unrealistic body image.”
The Butterfly Foundation welcomed the new guidance.
Says Christine Morgan, CEO, The Butterfly Foundation: “Advertisers have a moral and social responsibility to educate themselves and be diverse in their portrayal of body shapes and sizes. Over- representation in popular culture, of which advertising is a part, of so called ‘ideal’ bodies can trigger body dissatisfaction and translate into dangerous behaviours and in some cases, eating disorders.”
The AANA said that the Code does not prohibit advertisers from including a diversity of images, including people who have a variety of sizes and shapes.
Adds Brandon: “However, advertisers should take care to not present an unrealistic body image as a shape to conform or aspire to.”
The evolution of body image guidance by the AANA reflects brand owners’ intent to continue to meet the community’s expectations for responsible advertising, helping to ensure that advertising has a positive impact in terms of representing and promoting positive body image in society. It is the codes and the self-regulatory system which both promote and deliver trust between advertisers and consumers.
The updated Practice Note is available from the AANA website.
2 Comments
It seems to me that Simone Brandon believes 3rd parties can make better decisions than people can for themselves. Particularly when she has a financial incentive (her salary) in being one of those 3rd parties.
Ok, so how about this – instead of presuming to tell us what community standards and expectations are when it comes to appearances. How about we use actual evidence?
We have an incredible petri dish called Instagram.
It’s where users choose which people they want to follow themselves without being told by the AANA which type of people they are MEANT to like.
Spend just a few minutes on the site and it becomes pretty obvious very quickly what the expectations of body types are in the actual, real community. It is the toned and trim models and the buffed and tanned guys who get all the followers. It’s the Kayla Itsines of the world – not the Clementine Fords – who get the attention.
If you want to know what community standards and expectations are – pay attention to what the community actually does unprompted. You might find out that usually isn’t what the columnists in the Guardian say.
Honestly, the arrogance of this organisation to lecture us about what the community expects is breathtaking, when in fact the measures they are proposing are merely the strange, grandstanding standards of a very small, but loud subset of activist types who want to tell the rest of us how to live our own lives.