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Body shaming backlash fails miserably, Protein World makes a million

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I'm conflicted on this.

On one hand, yes the model is a fit body and in general they are promoting fitness. On the other hand, such a body is very unfeasible for the vast majority of people, and that body isn't necessary to be considered fit/healthy/hot - so it may be portraying an image to even perfectly healthy/sexy people that they aren't fit enough. But I am also on the camp that though we should try to understand obesity/overweight habits, we shouldn't simply try to accept them as is. So yeah, like I said, conflicted.


As for the company reaction, I find it kind of douchey for a company to do that, but whatever that's their thing.
This doesn't make sense to me.

The point of a commercial/ad is to get the consumer to believe they have a "need" for their product. How exactly should a health company promote their product if not by showcasing a fit person?
 
Its not a replacement though. Its a supplement. It says so on most powders (at least what I used) and most companies warn that the powder is not a meal replacement. If anyone treats it as such, its not the companies fault.

WRONG:

MYKZT3y.jpg
 
The model in the ad is 5 ft 10" tall with a weight of 115 lbs. She has a BMI of 16.5 , which is totally acceptable by todays fashion standards and preconceptions about how the female body should look like : toned, skinny, fatless, underweight.
 
Protein powder is just drinking your calories. That's it. It's convenient and protein dense.

As long as it's within your caloric intake range, I don't see the issue with replacing a new with it. Obviously not every meal, but it's totally reasonable to drink one instead of eat a meal if you want.
 
My understanding is that the women who have vocally opposed this ad feel that it's representative of standards they are trying to disenfranchise, since they feel that standard is antagonizing and not truly to their benefit. Generally imagery that goes onto to reinforce that standard (and accompanying artifacts like shaming people for their weight and similar body related subjects) have a overall negative effect on women, something that's likely due to their omnipresence and strength in contemporary society.



Taking offence at the taking of offence.


So these women are simply expanding their protests after already picketing newsagents for selling Cosmopolitan, Vogue and countless other women's magazines that perpetuate exactly the same kind of body image - 'get your bod in shape for the summer' is probably splashed across half of them this month. Or their campaign against fitness magazines for having images like the poster on nearly every cover every month?

Oh wait, no they aren't - they re going after some random company for an innocuous ad that isn't being controversial or promoting any particular body image message that isn't already pushed by the vast majority of the media in the country.

Of course that doesn't make those other companies right. I just find it odd that this one seemed to be singled out.
 
Of course that doesn't make those other companies right. I just find it odd that this one seemed to be singled out.

Definitely odd. Probably seemed like an easy target at the time. Original offended people thought they'd get some half ass apologies on twitter and they'd be able to pat themselves on the back for making a difference. Company pushes back, offended party rallies the troops and this company is now the devil.
 
As a woman, I'm not at all offended by the model on the ad. Or the women on any fitness products. I find them inspiring.

You are supposed to be, that's the points of those ads.

Like when I see some suave ass, chiseled guy, surrounded by beautiful woman in a boat, with piles of money and ninja's follow him in jet ski. They ask, don't you want to be like him? and I'm hell yes! I'll buy your product Bud Light.
 
For all of you acting ignorant about why A LOT of people wouldn't consider meal replacements (not talking about this specific one, just in general) as a healthy alternative to, you know, eating well, is that apart from containing substances like sweeteners and whatnot, that fat loss associated with those diets is often not maintained in the long term, as a re-educational diet would. Not to mention that a lot of those products are often nutritionally unbalanced.

But if you want to act that meal replacement diets are super healthy and help people maintain healthy life styles, please, go ahead.

Most people don't stick to ANY diet.

I think replacing a meal with a shake is perfectly healthy and can help you to maintain a helathy lifestyle, aswell as being very good if one wants to cut weight for summer. Also wtf is wrong with sweeteners.

The main point of discussion is that the ad implies that the portrayed picture is what a fit "beach body" should look like, when it is NOT NECESSARILY the case. You CAN be fit AND HEALTHY and not look as slim and as trimmed as the girl in the picture. If it inspires some people to look better, that is all right, but PLEASE STOP ACTING CONCERNED ABOUT PEOPLE'S HEALTH when you don't need to look like that to be healthy, or to go to the beach without feeling insecure about yourself.


Please message the mods and tell them how the beachbody thread on GAF should be removed. Because these images are obviously stating that if you don't look like this then you are not fit and healthy.
 
As a woman, I'm not at all offended by the model on the ad. Or the women on any fitness products. I find them inspiring.

As a man I'm not offended by jokes linking dick size and masculinity/virility. Or any dick jokes. I find them hilarious.

I however, think they put unnecessary pressure on individuals and are better avoided.
 
You are supposed to be, that's the points of those ads.

Like when I see some suave ass, chiseled guy, surrounded by beautiful woman in a boat, with piles of money and ninja's follow him in jet ski. They ask, don't you want to be like him? and I'm hell yes! I'll buy your product Bud Light.

There is group of people claiming she should feel victimized by the ads. But that's not uncommon with them.
 
Please message the mods and tell them how the beachbody thread on GAF should be removed. Because these images are obviously stating that if you don't look like this then you are not fit and healthy.

There's a difference between a thread about people discussing physical prowess and vanity and an advertisement implying if you're not her you're not beach body ready.
 
Most people don't stick to ANY diet.

I think replacing a meal with a shake is perfectly healthy and can help you to maintain a helathy lifestyle, aswell as being very good if one wants to cut weight for summer. Also wtf is wrong with sweeteners.

You can think whatever you want, it doesn't change the fact that most weight lost with meal replacements is re-gained and it offers no advantage apart from practicality over a well balanced meal.

The jury is still out on sweeteners: http://www.nature.com/articles/natu...FoxTMbSeAC1GIM7fbZYGMZLDGicgLti3DffeqM5Tsjg==. The study includes Sulcralose, which is the sweetener used in the products of Protein World.
 
There's a difference between a thread about people discussing physical prowess and vanity and an advertisement implying if you're not her you're not beach body ready.

The GAF thread about beachbody workouts aims to get you to have a beach body.
If the term beach body is offensive and implies that you can't go to the beach without it then I don't see how using it in an official thread is so much different to using it in an ad.

Advertisements reflect the common vernacular so if not having a "beach body" means that you shouldn't or are shamed when going to the beach then that meaning should be reflected everywhere. But it clearly isn't. It doesn't take a genius to realise that the term "beach body" refers to a specific set of gender dependant body styles, primarily characterised by an amount of muscle tone alongside a low body fat percentage.

Either the term is offensive or it isn't, you can't really have it both ways.
 
You can think whatever you want, it doesn't change the fact that most weight lost with meal replacements is re-gained and it offers no advantage apart from practicality over a well balanced meal.

Fact? Please source this.

The benefit is ease, high protein and low cost relative to the amount of protein. So it does offer an advantage.
 
Ignoring that "beach body" is a specific term is pretty obtuse.

Which is fine when you're discussing it with like minded people who speak the same way IE Beach Body thread where they discuss nutrition, work outs, and general vanity. The issue (that's been repeated many times in this thread) is this is an advertisement and not a conversation between two fitness oriented individuals.

The GAF thread about beachbody workouts aims to get you to have a beach body.
If the term beach body is offensive and implies that you can't go to the beach without it then I don't see how using it in an official thread is so much different to using it in an ad.

Advertisements reflect the common vernacular so if not having a "beach body" means that you shouldn't or are shamed when going to the beach then that meaning should be reflected everywhere. But it clearly isn't. It doesn't take a genius to realise that the term "beach body" refers to a specific set of gender dependant body styles, primarily characterised by an amount of muscle tone alongside a low body fat percentage.

Either the term is offensive or it isn't, you can't really have it both ways.

You do not understand the difference between a thread and an advertisement. A thread is something you search out and become involved in. An advertisement is delivered to you. This ad does not exist in a vacuum and is part of an overall problem that I'm sure you can admit exists.

Yes. They were totally going for fitness with the "weightloss collection". Wording matters here and we can assume it's common but then that's on you to prove. Can you prove people who view that will see it as common vernacular language? I doubt it.

The term itself isn't offensive. Only people with extreme views are saying that. What people are saying is that when you say "Are you beach body ready?" and you prop a thin girl next to it, it gives the impression this is what a beach body is. If you want to disagree with what is said then you should agree with how the beauty industry operates and overwhelming thin models every where is simply OK when it promotes a "healthy", "active", beautiful" life. This is the issue.
 
As a man I'm not offended by jokes linking dick size and masculinity/virility. Or any dick jokes. I find them hilarious.

I however, think they put unnecessary pressure on individuals and are better avoided.

What?

Dd you just have a random stream of consciousness?
 
There's a difference between a thread about people discussing physical prowess and vanity and an advertisement implying if you're not her you're not beach body ready.
That's not an implication of the ad. An image of what many would consider to be a "beach body ready" physique is not a statement that that is the only kind of "beach body ready" physique, nor is such a statement implied. People that say that it is are letting their own insecurities put meaning that is absent from the advertisers intent into the ad. Adding the question "are you" also doesn't add this meaning or implication.
 
That's not an implication of the ad. An image of what many would consider to be a "beach body ready" physique is not a statement that that is the only kind of "beach body ready" physique, nor is such a statement implied. People that say that it is are letting their own insecurities put meaning that is absent from the advertisers intent into the ad. Adding the question "are you" also doesn't add this meaning or implication.
No, you're much too kind to these people protesting.

It's not insecurities because that implies a lack of intent. They're being intentionally obtuse to create the controversy in the first place because there's no controversy if they acknowledge the ad for what it's actually saying.
 
You can think whatever you want, it doesn't change the fact that most weight lost with meal replacements is re-gained and it offers no advantage apart from practicality over a well balanced meal.

That regain stuff is simply not true.
and noone is arguing that these meal replacement replacements are better than a balanced, organic meal with the same macro macronutrients.
But as a meal replacement for the "average" meal it's perfectly viable.
High protein.No sugar. No carbs.
 
Ignoring that "beach body" is a specific term is pretty obtuse.

Yup. I think people are purposely misconstruing intent of the word beach body.

Tenacious-V
Greek God transformation

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Gottdamn! This transformation and the one in this thread from yesterday are pretty inspiring and should definitely put to rest the notion that having a fit body is impossible, but it probably won't.
 
That's not an implication of the ad. An image of what many would consider to be a "beach body ready" physique is not a statement that that is the only kind of "beach body ready" physique, nor is such a statement implied. People that say that it is are letting their own insecurities put meaning that is absent from the advertisers intent into the ad. Adding the question "are you" also doesn't add this meaning or implication.

Let me put in male standards:

"Are you sex ready?" and beside it is a picture of a big dick.

Same thing. Sure, you don't need to have a big dick but it's playing on insecurities to sell a product. We can jump through hoops to say it's OK and people are outraged over nothing but then you're just willfully ignoring any actual criticism and harm these ads do (to sell a product).
 
Every year millions of men and women join gyms and start diets once winter is over in order to look good for the summer. Everybody would rather be fit than out of shape. We'll now pretend this is not true.
 
Is that a user from neogaf? Because damn, that's crazy.

I don't know the backstory, but he looked pretty fit in the first pic to begin with- check the arms and shoulders. (Thought it's a bit hard to be sure due to the size) But yeah, even getting to such an incredibly low level of bodyfat is pretty admirable. I don't think I could ever make it past the third pic.
 
It's anecdotal, but protein shakes for breakfast every morning and hard work for a year and half got me from here:

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To here:

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Still have a long ways to go (and these pics are old from last year). But I don't see any issues with meal replacement. Every diet takes discipline and you can easily relapse if you don't change your lifestyle.
 
Every year millions of men and women join gyms and start diets once winter is over in order to look good for the summer. Everybody would rather be fit than out of shape. We'll now pretend this is not true.

The problem is most absolutely NOT wanting to be fit.

The problem is linking fitness to one kind of body or image. You can be fit, and healthy and still not have a body that looks like the body of the model on the ad. Which is something a lot of people are ignoring completely. The ad is not selling healthiness. It is not selling a healthy life-style as some people are arguing. A healthy life style DOES NOT NEED to be supplemented by those products.

And then there is a lot of concern trolling.
 
Let me put in male standards:

"Are you sex ready?" and beside it is a picture of a big dick.

Same thing. Sure, you don't need to have a big dick but it's playing on insecurities to sell a product. We can jump through hoops to say it's OK and people are outraged over nothing but then you're just willfully ignoring any actual criticism and harm these ads do (to sell a product).

A fit body can be achieved through natural healthy means. A bigger penis can only be achieved through an operation?
 
The problem is most absolutely NOT wanting to be fit.

The problem is linking fitness to one kind of body or image. You can be fit, and healthy and still not have a body that looks like the body of the model on the ad. Which is something a lot of people are ignoring completely. The ad is not selling healthiness. It is not selling a healthy life-style as some people are arguing. A healthy life style DOES NOT NEED to be supplemented by those products.

And then there is a lot of concern trolling.

No one is saying that you have to look just like the model. But having a low body fat and muscle IS healthier. Health is a range. It doesn't need to be supplemented by these products but it CAN.

You are creating ultimatums that no one in the ad (or those who are disagreeing with you) are claiming.
 
The problem is most absolutely NOT wanting to be fit.

The problem is linking fitness to one kind of body or image. You can be fit, and healthy and still not have a body that looks like the body of the model on the ad. Which is something a lot of people are ignoring completely. The ad is not selling healthiness. It is not selling a healthy life-style as some people are arguing. A healthy life style DOES NOT NEED to be supplemented by those products.

And then there is a lot of concern trolling.

This is ridiculous.
 
Let me put in male standards:

"Are you sex ready?" and beside it is a picture of a big dick.

Same thing. Sure, you don't need to have a big dick but it's playing on insecurities to sell a product. We can jump through hoops to say it's OK and people are outraged over nothing but then you're just willfully ignoring any actual criticism and harm these ads do (to sell a product).

If I discovered that small penises were a direct result of not eating right and working it out more ... I would make billions!
 
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