Slimming Product Ads... after 10:00 pm Only?

As future nutrition professionals, many of us are concerned with how we might influence and improve the health of entire populations. Of course, governments in the US, Canada, parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world have gone the extra step in many instances - by not just encouraging an idea, but by banning exposure to certain ideas/products in the public sphere. The trans fat ban in New York and the abolishment of smoking in public indoor areas in Ontario are a couple of obvious examples. Along the same vein, Spain has recently proposed a rather interesting strategy to reduce eating disorders and other self-esteem-related complexes among young people. I was watching a video about this on the BBC News website and thought it might be of interest to my Nutrition colleagues.

The ban stipulates that television ads for cosmetic surgery, slimming products and some beauty treatment can only be shown after 10:00 pm, a time when, in theory, "vulnerable young people" won't be watching them. The idea is that this restriction will reduce distress among children and teens to be slim; it is supposed to impede the media's ability to idealize beauty. These are lovely thoughts that have a great deal of merit to them. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could come close to eliminating extreme body-consciousness among today's youth? It would be wonderful, you have to admit. But I personally really don't see how this campaign can accomplish this.

First of all, let me point out the self-evident and say that I think it's fair to say that teens are generally more self-consciousness about their bodies than are ten-year olds. And lots of teens are up at 10:00 pm, 11:00 pm. So, in short, the most vulnerable population here isn't being missed. Point and case.

More importantly, it's not makeup or weight loss commercials per se that make kids, teens and even adults feel a sense of inadequacy about their bodies. These ads may contribute, yes, but in a way, they are only a symptom of a much deeper issue. These ads only exist because the products they showcase are in demand: people want these products/treatments because of an preexisting desire for slimness, for attaining the quintessence of beauty. The commercials are for products deemed to be the very "solution" to the issue. The issue itself lies, well... everywhere. Movies. TV shows. Clothing ads. Magazines. That pretty, skinny girl in your Grade 10 Civics class with whom all the boys are enamoured and who eats whatever she wants but never gains weight, thanks to a "high metabolism". (You know the one!) Products like weight-loss pills have only been developed because the aforementioned sources have already produced feelings of inadequacy among our youth.

So then what do commercials for cosmetic treatments promote? What is it that governments fear so deeply? Through the implementation of this legislation, governments are trying to keep kids from seeing these ads and, I guess, from longing for such treatments... but I personally can't say I know too many kids who can afford to have breast augmentation or liposuction performed. And when they do get to a point in their lives when they can afford such procedures, they'll be seeing the ads anyway. Do you get what I mean?

I understand what this new campaign is trying to get at and I think the underlying purpose is noble and admirable... but its execution is not the answer to eating disorders and self-esteem problems in the young. The exaggerated, unrealistic image of what we're supposed to see as "beautiful" has been ingrained into everything. Sheltering kids from a few adverts won't do anything - just think about what images of the "ideal" we're exposed to on a short trip zipping through Yonge-Dundas Square. And it's not just skinniness that makes people feel badly about themselves; before I had much pocket money of my own to buy nice clothes, I hated walking through the Eaton Centre and feeling judged by snobby shop keepers! While visiting Nice, France on a school trip as a 17-year old, my best friend and I - after a long, languorous bus ride - walked into clothes store looking sort of disheveled... and were subsequently told by the shopkeeper that his clothes were too expensive for us! My friend and I felt awful for the rest of the day, because our appearances didn't meet what that arrogant shopkeeper figured to be "sophisticated-looking!" Don't you think that we felt sort of self-conscious about our looks after that incident? And how can governments legislate a ban on commercials for nice clothes? It's just not happening.

I don't purport to know what the answer to extreme self-consciousness and eating disorders is, but I personally don't believe banning certain ads at certain times of the day is it.

Anyway, what do you reckon?