Inappropriate Diet Ad Banned By ASA
It is impossible to avoid the myriad of dieting advertisements that run on the radio and tv. This especially at this time of year as we near the Christmas party season where people can be a bit obsessive about how they look. Diet Chef recently ran an advertisement where a woman called Cheryl is in a dialogue with herself before she lost weight with diet chef. The tearful former self looked at her slimmer self with awe as the slimmer self said how much better everything is now that she lost weight.
Now no one can deny that people can feel much better once they lost weight. This better feeling can lead to positive changes in their lives not related to the weight. It is, however, folly to believe that weight loss is the answer to all of life’s problems. The ASA branded the advertisement as “irresponsible”.
As a therapist, I see many people who are struggling with their weight. I make it clear that there are no simple answers when it comes to managing weight. Additionally, though weight loss is important it may not lead to the utopia that these clients hope for. Dr Killjoy, no, Mr Realistic, yes. Part of a therapist’s responsibility is to manage the expectation of their clients. All too often diet companies fail to do this spectacularly.
