In a recent advertisement for its Blue Label line of jeans, Ralph Lauren created an advertisement that featured model Filippa Hamilton in a pair of the brand's $500 Tartan Patchwork jeans.
Unfortunately, Hamilton looked more like Jackie Skellington a la The Nightmare Before Christmas than a human.
In real life, Hamilton wears a size 6 dress. In the ad, she looked like a size 000. Her head is clearly wider than her waist, and her arms and legs look like twigs.
Shortly after receiving backlash for the disturbing advertisement, a spokesman for the company said, "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."
The ethical dilemma of "retouching" Hamilton's photo is one thing, but for someone out there in AdvertisingLand to sit down and edit the image and think that her emaciated frame was acceptable for publication in any medium is disgusting.
If it is physically dangerous for a person to weigh as little as Hamilton appeared to in the ad, then why glorify that image through a magazine advertisement for the world to see?
It is not normal. It is not healthy. It is not attainable.
Advertisements like this one perpetuate the self-loathing and dissatisfaction associated with eating disorders by making women and men think it's normal to weigh 110 pounds at 5-feet-10-inches tall.
We commend Ralph Lauren for publicly apologizing and acknowledging that Hamilton looked alien-like. Let's hope they use some judgment next time before creating false images of women for the sake of sales.
