Forget sex, Brits find body shaming ads most offensive

Body shaming is now public enemy number one and likely to spark the most complaints about an ad, with nearly three-fifths (57%) of Brits considering those that contain negative messaging about a person’s weight to be abhorrent, although less than half say they would report any ad they found offensive.

So says a new YouGov consumer study, which quizzed a nationally representative group of 1,200 British adults, as well as 1,200 Americans, last month to determine the most contentious issues of the day.

While body shaming was top, cultural appropriation was not far behind, with half (50%) of British consumers revealing their aversion to brands which show cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical way.

Meanwhile, almost two in five Britons (37%) find advertisements with religious messages or undertones to be offensive.

However, only a third (34%) of Brits find full nudity, sexually suggestive images and gender stereotypes distasteful and even fewer (30%) see swearing are offensive, while one in five (20%) say they would be offended by images related to addiction.

Even so, only 45% of Brits say that they would report an ad if they find it offensive, with the same proportion saying that they would not (43%); the rest were undecided.

When split by generation, younger Brits are as likely to report an ad they find inappropriate (40%) as they are to not report it (40%), while Millennials and Baby Boomers are more likely to report an offensive ad (46% and 48% respectively).

However, Generation X and the so-called Silent Generation (those aged over 77) are more likely to say they would not report the ad (46% and 52% respectively).

When asked how likely they are to boycott a brand they found offensive, a majority (80%) of Brits say they are likely to stop buying from that brand; this is greatly contrasted by the figures in the US, with only three in ten (29%) of American Gen Zs likely to boycott a brand.

GenZers in Britain register the highest share of consumers who say they are likely to boycott a brand if their ad is offensive (80%), followed by slightly fewer Baby Boomers and Silent Generation (78% each). More than three in five Millennials (62%) and Gen X (65%) are likely to cut off a brand because of an advertisement that they find disrespectful.

Interestingly, while the UK Advertising Standards Authority regularly batters firms over the gratuitous use of sexual imagery, it initially cleared one of the most controversial body shaming ads in recent years – the 2015 Protein World “Are you Beach Body Ready” campaign – despite almost 400 complaints and 70,000 signatories to an online petition about its portrayal of women.

The watchdog later banned the ad but only over misleading health and nutrition claims. However, in 2019 it introduced new measures to outlaw harmful gender stereotypes in advertising.

In blog post published in 2021 on Shots.net, Jungle Creations co-CEO Melissa Chapman claimed that while steps have been taken to avoid overt body shaming ads, the industry is still guilty of a subtle, pernicious attack on women’s – and men’s – insecurities.

She concluded: “Making women – or men, for that matter – feel guilty about their appearance feels like the dying breath of the old world of advertising. Making people feel good about the body they are in is far more effective than shaming them into submission.

“Not everyone is in a position – either physically or mentally – to make the changes to their life advertising pressures them to make. Indeed, not everyone wants to make changes. It may surprise brands that some people are perfectly happy as they are. Pressuring people to change when they can’t or don’t want to can be soul-crushing. So stop it.”