Melinda Tankard Reist has written an article this week about Lovable’s new ad campaign. Please read these and consider spending a few minutes writing to Lovable about them. CollectiveShout has some tips on what you might like to include in your message.

You can read Melinda’s letter here. And here is mine.

I writing to you to express my concern with your new ‘Lovable love colour’ ad featuring Jennifer Hawkins.

According to your website you are  “dedicated to changing the culture surrounding eating disorders and body image through our support of Butterfly, by using happy, healthy models in our campaigns and promotional activities and by continuing to design intimates that are not created to objectify women’s bodies but to make women look, and most importantly feel, great when they wear them.”

It seems that this is actually not the case.

1. While it may be that you design intimates that are not created to objectify women, you clearly have no desire to design advertise them in a way that does not objectify women. Putting a women in underwear and having ice cream dripping down her, having her sucking on straws, and on her finger in several shots, is so suggestive that it is little more than soft porn. I certainly would turn this ad off if there were children in the room.

2. It is not clear to me how this kind of ad campaign ‘changes the culture’ surrounding eating disorders and body image. It seems to me that it actually REFLECTS the current culture. If you could explain this to me that would be helpful.

Having a statement like this on your website and then producing ads like this one is nothing short of outright hypocrisy. It is offensive to anyone who has or is suffering from poor body image issues and/or eating disorders. Far from changing culture this campaign (and others like it) add to the current culture and the enormous amount of damage it does to women.

I hope that you will take the time to read and respond to my concerns.

David has also written a letter well worth reading. You can contact Lovable here.