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An Edgars sponsored ad on Instagram has caused controversy with followers calling out the local fashion brand for making women "feel horrible about themselves". The ad features their new fitness range, and people are unhappy about the model chosen, because they feel she is not representative.
Irate followers have taken to Facebook and Instagram, expressing the "deplorable" choice made by Edgars to cast this particular model, with many commenters calling her a bad choice for a fitness model as they believe her to be "too thin", "the wrong choice", "#wrongimage", "underweight" and "underaged":
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Although a lot of Facebook commenters were very negative, calling the model is "anorexic" among other things, others provided a different way of looking at it.
Images: Facebook
We feel this entire furore is a bit hypocritical. Sure, this model may not represent the majority of South African women, but then, very few models do.
The point is, there are a lot of women with naturally slender bodies who also exercise, and who live healthy lives. We don't know whether this model is underage or unhealthily underweight, and no one should be persecuted for their body shape, no matter their size.
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The only problem comes in when women who are underweight (or overweight) are forced, coerced, or pressured into maintaining a particular unhealthy size.
Which is why we applaud and encourage variety and inclusiveness in ad campaigns.
Edgars responded to readers on Facebook, saying:
"Thank you for the feedback. As a brand we endeavour to reflect body positivity and support people of all body types. We are also committed to using models who represent all South Africans. However, please remember that our model is a person too, and these comments are hurtful. We do not condone body shaming of any sort, this community is about building people up and we'd like everyone to use it to instill confidence in each other."
Edgars sent us this response:
Edgars appreciates the media comments from our customers related to a model we worked with for our 2017 Back To Gym social media post. These have been duly noted.
At Edgars we work with various models and we wish to state that it is not our intention for any of our marketing campaigns to offend any of our customers. Edgars ensures that it complies with both ethical and moral standards when it comes to its campaigns. At the same time we promote self-acceptance first and we aim to reflect that in all of our current and future marketing campaigns.
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