There are people out there who are easily influenced and who still think thin=sexy, but hopefully most people see that thin=thin, and that’s all.

Though earlier today I was reading a blog post which contained the words “guinea pig” in its metaphorical sense, and the ads were all to do with guinea pigs! Since I have three of them, this probably struck me as funnier than it really merited…

But yes, the ad-selection software does seem to be a terribly blunt instrument.

On the TV Tropes Wiki site, there’s a page in the “character tropes” section that discusses ways in which fat characters are depicted in various fictional media, and the ads are split between “Lose the Belly Fat” types and “Gay Chubby Dates” types. Neither of which is really particularly relevant as far as I recall.

And, for the record, I’d pay to read ad-free Big Fat Deal and Elastic Waist, if that’s what it came to in order to retain editorial freedom and *avoid* too-intrusive advertising.

Emily

Weetabix’s response may have vanished for a completely unrelated reason, however. And I can’t remember enough of the specifics in order to do a thorough search of the Elastic Waist site. If I’ve somehow missed it, and Weetabix’s response is lurking there somewhere, I apologize for speculating too wildly about its absence. I just know I couldn’t find it almost immediately after I’d read it, and subsequent returns to the site soon after did not produce it either.

And, for the record, I’d pay to read ad-free Big Fat Deal and Elastic Waist, if that’s what it came to in order to retain editorial freedom and/or too-intrusive advertising.

Emily

Advertising on a site isn’t bad, nor is having advertising on your site. But if you don’t understand your target market, you’re only going to piss people off.

But how can Elastic Waist as an entity purport to be part of the solution if its also part of the problem?

That’s just it. I don’t think Conde Nast or Self magazine “purport to be part of the solution” at all, either explicitly or implicitly. They are in it simply for the profits and if women want to read about body-acceptance, they will be all about body-acceptance; if women want to read about dieting, they will be all over dieting. This isn’t the personal and moral issue for them that it is for us; to them, it’s simply a matter of what pays.

BlogHer is better about not putting any weight loss ads on the site, although sometimes the links that live under the main ad are weight loss related.