For this exercise I have to look at the series of blog posts Looking at adverts by Dawn Wooley on the weareoca website and write a commentary on whichever post I choose on my learning log.

The post I have chosen to look at is post nine which can be found here. The post was written in 2015 and discusses the images and text used in two adverts produced for Protein World, the first produced in 2014 featuring an image of a man and the second featuring an image of a woman produced the following year.

As Dawn writes in her post, the image used gives lots of visual cues, we the viewers literally look up to this man, with his toned physique and the implied athletisism and dynamism. The image is not sexualised, the black of his shorts, the fact that very little of his body below the waist is showing and that it is in the corner of the image is designed to draw attention away from this area. Whilst ‘Beach Bodies 2014’ is printed on the image, it is in small type, in recessive grey and again placed in the corner of the image. The lack of text on the image seems to imply that men do not need to be told what the product will do for them, they are too smart for that, simply pay £28, buy the product and you will (can?) have a physique like the one shown.

The image used the following year differs in several respects.

The use of a female model by itself is not controversial, however, combined with the other changes, the advert becomes sexist. Unlike the advert from the previous year the model is placed centrally with a bright yellow bikini, her legs apart and her image cropped just above the knee. The image is very sexualised. Rather than featuring ‘Beach Body 2015’ in a small grey font, the advert asks in large, black capital, ‘Are you beach body ready?’ The implications are either that unless the viewer has a figure like the model in the advert or that they are using Protein World supplements, the answer is no. The other differences are the products are now branded ‘The Weight Loss Collection’ implying that women need to lose weight whereas no mention of this was made on the poster the previous year. The ‘Starting the Protein Revolution’ flash has been moved to one of the corners, perhaps because the revolution started the previous year or perhaps because women are not considered as having the strength or charatcter traits to be a revolutionary. The other change is that for women the protein revolution or beach body readiness comes at a price, or more accurately a higher price. In 2014 men could be protein revolutionaries for only £28. The following year to buy into the weight loss collection and protein revolution would cost women £62.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 378 complaints about the 2015 advert but ruled that it did not break advertising guidelines stating “We did not consider the image of the model would shame women who had different body shapes into believing they needed to take a slimming supplement … For that reason, we concluded the ad was not irresponsible,”.

In May 2017 Protein World ran another campaign suggesting that taking their supplements could help people lose weight. The this was new campaign using a celebrity instead of a model.

The advert was the subject of fourteen complaints to the ASA, considerably fewer than the 2015 poster, which dismissed the complaints. Although similar to the 2015 poster, there are some major differences which, I think, represent a climb down by Protein World.

The first difference is the change from bold yellow to more muted whites and greys, the advert is not as eye-catching as either the 2014 or 2015 posters. The only use of yellow is the name Kardashian which I think is an implict attempt to link the previous branding of Protein World with the celebrity. The change of pose, use of white bathing suit, leg warmers and jacket are a deliberate attempt to tone down the sexuality of the advert compared to the 2015 version. The strap line ‘Can you keep up with a Kardashian?’, which was the subject of the complaints about unhealthy and a competitve approach to dieting, is obviously a play on the title of the TV show about the Kardashian family and with the mixed fonts and colours has much less impact than the ‘Are you beach body ready’ strap line of 2015.

Because of the change of colour pallette, the Protein World branding is less visible and this also applies to the pack shot which look a bit anonymous against the white background. Overall the advert looks like a campaign that has run out of steam with the image and text communicating more about a member of the Kardashian family than Protein World.

The objective of advertising is to get the product noticed and to generate sales. Although the 2015 advert received 378 complaints, the ASA dismissed the complaints and according to Protein World the advert and the controversey it created genterated £1 million of extra sales for the brand in under a week (Brinded, 2015). Despite its success, I find it depressingly sexist and I wonder in light of the Harvey Weinstein conviction and #metoo movenment whether the brand would find it appropriate to run similar advertising today.

Sources

Graham, L., 2015. Protein World’S Beach Body Ready Ad ‘Not Offensive’: Watchdog. [online] CNBC. Available at: <https://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/01/protein-worlds-beach-body-ready-ad-not-offensive-watchdog.html&gt; [Accessed 7 May 2020].

Practice, A., 2015. Protein World Ltd. [online] Asa.org.uk. Available at: <https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/protein-world-ltd-a15-300099.html&gt; [Accessed 7 May 2020].

Practice, A. S. A. | C. of A. (s.d.) Protein World Ltd. At: https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/protein-world-ltd-a17-379439.html (Accessed 16/08/2020).

Protein World ‘socially irresponsible’ ad escapes ban (2017) At: https://www.marketingweek.com/protein-world-ad-escapes-ban/ (Accessed 16/08/2020).

Brinded, L. (2015) Protein World makes £1 million immediately after the ‘Beach Body Ready’ campaign backlash. At: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/protein-world-makes-1-million-immediately-after-the-beach-body-ready-campaign-backlash-2015-4 (Accessed 16/08/2020).