Hasta La Creative!

This week, Fox Sports and Burger King drew ire for an offensive animated segment poking fun at Jessica Simpson’s weight. The segment, aside from being in bad taste, was beyond insulting to women of all ages. Both Fox and Burger King have issued apologies to Simpson, but it may be too little too late, pointing out, yet again, that making fun of a woman’s weight is still acceptable, especially when done in a chest-thumping manner.

It doesn’t stop there. Ralph Lauren was also under fire this week for a print ad that was photoshopped to ridiculous proportions — the model’s head appears to be about twice the size of her pelvis. When called to the carpet, this is what Lauren had to say:

“For over 42 years we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.”

Apparently, quality, integrity, and brand standards are quite slim. The model, size 4, 120-pound, 5-foot-10 Filippa Hamilton, claims she was fired in April for being “too fat.”

Meanwhile, German magazine Brigitteannounced they would only use “realistic” women in their magazine from now on instead of professional models, prompting Chanel uberdesigner Karl Lagerfeld to pronounce that no one wanted to see “curvy” women and that only “fat mothers” object to thin models, despite the overwhelming approval of American fashionistas to plus-size model Lizzie Miller’s nude photo in Glamour last August, as well as the success of Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty.” To me, as well as many other women, healthy always trumps skeletal.

It bothers me that it’s 2009, and we’re still talking about body-image distortion in advertising. True, I could point out how these ads contribute to eating disorders and low self esteem, but what bothers me more than anything is that this standard is still only applied to women. These archaic standards still say that fat (ie: larger than a size 4, which is a standard sample size) equals lazy, sloppy, and unworthy of respect and basic human dignity, despite studies showing that an average American woman wears a size 14. There has to be a balance somewhere between art and commerce; a size 16 woman’s money is as legal tender as a size 2’s, is it not?

Sara Barton is a copywriter, social media strategist, and avid blogger in search of her next opportunity. Contact her via Twitter, LinkedIn, or her blog.