ARE YOU EXAM MIND READY?

The controversy that has arisen ever since the above advert for protein world appeared is a good example of how the media operates, the impact of media products, zeitgeist, media theory and good old fashioned popular culture.

The story so far... Protein World put together a PR promotion for their range of products [a series of slimming aid supplements branded: The Weight Loss Collection] which had, as a key element, a London tube poster campaign. The campaign asking the audience 'are you beach body ready' was accompanied by an image of Australian model Renee Sommerfield in a bikini. The colour palette was a vibrant and striking yellow and black, ensuring it stood out in the selected environment.

Almost immediately it provoked a hostile reaction on social media with many criticising the choice of model and caption as promoting a regressive body image that implied that the body image depicted [slim; toned; sexualised] was deemed to be the only one desirable to have and implying that any one not this shape should feel less attractive [or worthy?],that is to say, not ready for showing on the beach.

The image appeared on social media feeds - particularly Twitter - where the advert had often been defaced or had additional slogans added to it ridiculing the campaign and its attitude towards women. A number of women also posed in tube stations standing in front of the poster dressed only in their underwear or bikinis to draw attention to the image's negative impact on anyone less than the perfect body of the model.

'The entire premise of this campaign is utterly ridiculous. I am tired of seeing one body type pushed across advertising campaigns, television and everywhere else'

There it might have remained until Katie Hopkins decided to get involved in the controversy. Hopkins, a well known and polarising columnist for the Sun, posted a series of tweets hostile to the critics of the advert:

Chubsters, quit vandalising @proteinworld ads & get your arse running on the road. Feminism isn't an excuse for being FAT. #EatLessMoveMore

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/27/katie-hopkins-stirs-protein-world-ad-controversy-inviting-angry-chubsters-catch-her_n_7152036.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

The series of tweets that were highly inflammatory to people who were overweight pushed the debate deeper into the public awareness. In the tweets she was able to be even more direct in the invective she poured out than in her column. No doubt such debates boost her own profile.

An online petition attracted 50,000 signatures in a protest aimed at changing the advert. The company remained fixed in its position, refusing to alter the adverts as they claim this would amount to their agreeing with the protesters that the adverts were body shaming. The chief executive of the company saw the backlash grow exponentially when he appeared on Channel 4 and claimed those complaining about the poster and defacing adverts were “terrorists” and “extremists” who “shout a lot”.

The matter has also seen an increase in sales of 40% to its 300,000 customers and an increase in 5,000  new subscribers for their online sales in the first four days of the controversy [late April 2015]

Application of media:

 So what media theory and debates can we apply here?

[1] Well there's always the good old controversy creates attention and profit for the company issue we've explored with so many previous brand campaigns. Clearly many more people [possibly millions more] have seen the London Tube advert than would otherwise have been aware of their existence. The controversy - fuelled by the Protein World response - has lead to TV news coverage, appearances on TV discussion shows as well as features in most newspapers and countless online social media blogs let alone the hundreds of thousands of ordinary daily Tweets and Facebook activity that all develop public awareness of the brand - is there such a thing as bad publicity? The huge 50,000+ petition lead to a public protest meeting in Hyde Park [with all that media coverage]. It has also lead to a massive increase in sales for the Protein World products.

[2] The power of social media - the spread of the issue, the sharing of the image, the petition, the PR battle, the mash-ups of the image that are then tweeted, the graffiti images photographed and then shared, the notoriety of Katie Hopkins - tells us much about the zeitgeist but also the impact of the technology that enables such events to travel and to gain traction in the public consciousness.

[3] The impact of regressive tropes and public awareness and hostility to these - we might look at Blumler here and the needs of identity. Perhaps even McComb and agenda setting might be useful as a means of exploring this.

[4] Popular culture debate - the saturation of such images on our media output. The model is a celebrity vegan and has herself joined in the debate, defending the shoot and the use of the image as being simply  'one' body [hers] and not a message aimed at saying it should be the shape of 'all' bodies. Whatever the constructed intention, the Encoding/Decoding theory [Hall] shows in the differing understanding of the advert's intention by the audience according to their own ideologies and beliefs. The fact that any use of a 'slim' model may well be interpreted negatively is clear. The fact that a celebrity columnist will use such reactions to create a different debate is the novelty. The feminist/body image issues have become blurred in a manner that detracts from fully engaging with either but is an area a media student must have an understanding of why this is so.