Shame On You
Shame, shame, shame on the Benefiber people for blatantly advertising to the bulemic crowd. I don't know that it could be more blatant if they put "Hey young girls with eating disorders, come buy our product!" on their labels.
When Benefiber first came on the market, I remember that its ads catered to a "newer, younger" crowd of possible fiber using consumers. The ads showed the forty-somethings claiming their parents' fiber additive was too thick and gloopy and Benefiber was made for THEM. Now I don't know how many years down the road, the new ads - both TV and print, show a probably barely twenty-something model of stick thin body type (and I'm talking more of a willow stick than a pin oak) with this fluffy blue feather boa-esque top that makes her already unhealthy skinniness seem even more unhealthily skinny. It's just her holding a glass of clear liquid touting Benefiber. (Possibly the only thing she's eaten in several days?) In the TV ad, she moves like a high fashion model wanna be and is very obviously trying to either pass of or satirize the glamour of the fashion model world. And we all know how models are all about eating right and working out. Then I just saw an ad in Glamour magazine (I was just looking to see if I had made the 'Don't" section) in which this already stick thin young waif in said waist whittling silliness of a top (cuz that is the ONLY reason anyone can pass of putting the stupid thing on Dody Goodman - God rest her soul - let alone a 19 year old hottie) is photographed in some sort of sensual (I think, it was that or she was bemoaning her hunger) pose from the side where she had been additionally photoshopped to resemble the thickness of a quarter.
All of these watchdog groups and none of them are concerned about the blatant advertising unabashedly geared towards girls with eating disorders?
Shame on you, Benefiber.
When Benefiber first came on the market, I remember that its ads catered to a "newer, younger" crowd of possible fiber using consumers. The ads showed the forty-somethings claiming their parents' fiber additive was too thick and gloopy and Benefiber was made for THEM. Now I don't know how many years down the road, the new ads - both TV and print, show a probably barely twenty-something model of stick thin body type (and I'm talking more of a willow stick than a pin oak) with this fluffy blue feather boa-esque top that makes her already unhealthy skinniness seem even more unhealthily skinny. It's just her holding a glass of clear liquid touting Benefiber. (Possibly the only thing she's eaten in several days?) In the TV ad, she moves like a high fashion model wanna be and is very obviously trying to either pass of or satirize the glamour of the fashion model world. And we all know how models are all about eating right and working out. Then I just saw an ad in Glamour magazine (I was just looking to see if I had made the 'Don't" section) in which this already stick thin young waif in said waist whittling silliness of a top (cuz that is the ONLY reason anyone can pass of putting the stupid thing on Dody Goodman - God rest her soul - let alone a 19 year old hottie) is photographed in some sort of sensual (I think, it was that or she was bemoaning her hunger) pose from the side where she had been additionally photoshopped to resemble the thickness of a quarter.
All of these watchdog groups and none of them are concerned about the blatant advertising unabashedly geared towards girls with eating disorders?
Shame on you, Benefiber.
posted by The Warbler | 6/25/2008 11:11:00 PM
3 Comments:
The girl in the commercial is certainly not unhealthy or a waif. Not to mention the reference to an eating disorder. Did it occur to you that even skinny women need help with their, let's say digestion. Not because they don't eat but because their digestive systems just don't work with them. Shame on you for judging without knowing. The simplistic midwest attitude is appalling. Just because you don't look like her doesn't mean that you need to disparage her.
Well now...I think if you're going to start touting such philosophies such as "simplistic midwestern attitudes" and making comparisons to body types, perhaps the judgmental one is not me. You have, perhaps on purpose so as to have an excuse to be rude?, misread the missive. I have no attitudes against anyone smaller, skinnier, heftier or in any shape other than myself. I also am quite aware that all people, from all walks of life, sometimes need digestion aids. This diatribe was aimed at Benefiber and its advertising campaign - not at body types or those who use the product.
Advertising for a national company - especially for one with a product such as this - is all about demographics. The basis question all ad campaigns start with is "who do we wish to sell our product to"? The majority of fiber products and digestion aids are not traditionally bought by youthful, healthily skinny young women. And yes, in the ad that I was referring to, she is the very definition of a waif. If you're using a standard dictionary, that is.
I have to wonder if you are at all on a passing basis of knowledge with the staggering statistics of young girls with eating disorders. One of the most common involving the sometimes dangerous overuse of laxatives and digestive aids.
Shame on you for jumping to conclusions as a venue to disparage me.
Although I do have to say I was humored at the reference to my midwestern attitude. It's been so many years since I've been a midwestern anything.
Warbler, I purposely googled the subject of Benefiber's campaign toward young women with eating disorders. I saw the commercial the first time and I couldn't figure it why it bothered me. Then I saw it again just now and realized they are advertising their product to help women with eating disorders to gain fiber while not eating, basically lending the disease a hand.
Thank you for saying something about it.
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