In Touch With The Dutch
The company that makes Skippy peanut butter and Country Crock spread (“Pam, I want you to rub butter on my foot“) has decided to ban skinny models from their ads. All of the people who appear in their ads are now required to have a BMI between 18.5 and 25.
Unilever has adopted a new global guideline that will require that all its future marketing communications should not use models or actors that are either excessively slim or promote “unhealthy” slimness.
Semi-ironically, though, Unilever is also the company that makes SlimFast diet shakes. I guess those promote healthy slimness, so it’s okay. Oh, and as for the title of the post–Unilever is a Dutch company. I may not speak Polish, but I do know that this story is ongelovelijk!
Thanks to Jen for the link!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, International
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Don’t forget the best one ever! Not mainstream, but a definite classic is “Big Bottom” from Spinal Tap:
“The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’
That’s what I said
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
Or so I have read
My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo
I’d like to sink her with my pink torpedo
Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about bum cakes, my girl’s got ’em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?
I met her on Monday, twas my lucky bun day
You know what I mean
I love her each weekday, each velvety cheek day
You know what I mean
My love gun’s loaded and she’s in my sights
Big game is waiting there inside her tights, yeah
Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about mud flaps, my girl’s got ’em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?”
Oops – meant for this reply to go to the best songs for curvy girls…
Sorry!
I did see a Slim Fast ad the other day, though, that encouraged users to become whatever “slim” means for them. And the models were not all superskinny.
(Ah, it’s Find Your Slim. Which I keep wanting to type as “Find Your Slime.”)
Yeah, I see that SlimFast has been using not-so-anorectic-looking models in its latest TV ads, but i wasn’t so long ago ads in Europe played on British women’s insecurities about how they look in bikinis alongside French peers in the annual fight along the European beaches.
A coworker used to keep big tins of Slimfast in the kitchen at work while complaining that it “didn’t work”. I looked at the ingredients one day – the second ingredient was sugar.
Great topic for a blog! I will be a return reader.
Now if we could only convince the beer companies to show guys lusting after normal sized, realistic women instead of the blonde, sillicone enhanced, pamela anderson wannabes! If Budweiser tells them it’s OK to look at average (or above) weight chicks, then I might actually have a chance of hooking up at the club! LOLOL
Unilever is also the company that owns Dove — maybe that campaign started something…
Hey, I really like this site. I’m doing something a bit similar with my own blog, Fat Feminism. I’m going to add you to my blogroll and I was hoping you would take a look at my site and see if you would like to add me as well.
http://www.curvature.wordpress.com
(Btw, sorry for spamming your blogroll reply area, I didn’t realize what it was for and couldn’t delete the mess I made.)
I doubt it very much Sheila – unlike most others, I see the Dove campaign as simply a means of exploiting fat women’s sympathies. I think the bottom line, as it always is, is money. Unilever is simply jumping on the ban-overly-skinny-models bandwagon in hopes consumers will approve with their checkbooks.
SlimFast = healthy slimness??? Puhlease! that stuff is just sugar crap. not healthy at all. corporate hypocrisy abounds!
I see more slender women drinking SlimFast than us big gals. I thought about trying it, until I knew a woman who had to have her gall bladder removed because of excessive use. I haven’t had my gall bladder since June 2001, but I still wouldn’t touch it.