eachbodysready

Where there someone who is ‘beach body ready’, there is insinuated the other: someone who is ‘beach body unready’, if you like.

Regardless of how liberal you may be with the term ‘beach body ready’, by asking that question you insinuate someone has to exist in the ‘beach body unready’ category.

That person, even if its just one person, is being discriminated against by the term ‘beach body ready’ as it is phrased in Protein World’s question.

And it follows that that person should either not go to the beach at all or perhaps if they go to the beach they will be different from everyone else who is 'beach body ready’. If Arjun Seth believes his campaign to be ‘aspirational’ and fit for mass public consumption then I challenge him to name, in full, just 1 person other than himself that, in his view, is ‘beach body unready’.

As for us we will continue to campaign that the term ‘beach body ready’ is actually just nonsense.

After reading Channel 4′s article in which Arjun Seth called us terrorists for writing on their adverts I feel I need to respond. 

Firstly, I feel it’s a shame that he has stretched to such violent accusations directed at people rather than the ideas. I am not a terrorist. The pen is my weapon and my target is the concept of 'a beach body' because I believe it encourages discrimination. Arjun Seth has the power to really do some good here. Why would I wish him harm?

He says that 'a beach body' is "not a new fashion." This is true. It's an idea thats been gradually becoming more and more accepted as normal. At the same time, our culture has become more obsessed with looks, status and image, whilst mental health problems, eating disorders and depression are rife. Perhaps I am wrong on these points - I am no scientist - but I cannot help draw connections between the worry I hear from those around me, or read about in papers, and the messages (adverts) you meet on a daily basis, which encourage comparison, competition and in their most basic form: fear.

As we have seen from the huge uproar, the Protein World's advert has caused offence for a lot of people. Whether these dissenters are fighting for the beach to be associated with relaxation rather than vanity, or for their anorexic children, or just for themselves as one of the various gorgeous looking bodies we have in our fantastically cosmopolitan country to feel accepted on the beach; they are upset by it.

In my opinion, plenty of other companies have found ways to advertise their products that don't work through fear-mongering. Protein World could perhaps take a leaf out of that book. Instead their comments suggest they are happy their advertising has been more successful through the public frustration it has caused. This shows they are completely unaware of the responsibility that comes with their advertising power.

#eachbodysready

We are ready! Everyone is ready for the beach :)

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