Kate Moss quote on children’s shirts slammed by watchdog
Summary of story from The Independent, August 10, 2011
A website stocking children’s shirts emblazoned with a controversial quote by ‘supermodel’ Kate Moss has been heavily criticised by Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The range of T-shirts showing the slogan “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” was made available by Zazzle in the spring.
The company has been told it must take down the advert, which campaigners feared may encourage young girls, many of whom admire Ms Moss, to develop eating disorders.
People complaining about the advert to the ASA said it was irresponsible and could cause harm to children, because it implied being underweight was somehow desirable.
ASA watchdogs ruled the ad must not appear again in its current form.
A spokesman said Zazzle was to ensure future ads were not irresponsible and, particularly where they were addressed to or depicted children, did not contain anything that was likely to “condone or encourage an unsafe practice or to result in their physical, mental or moral harm”.
Zazzle said it had restricted the designs so they did not appear on children’s clothing.
Model Katie Green, who helped launch the ‘Say No to Zero’ campaign in 2009, welcomed the ban, saying that this T-shirt should have never been manufactured in the first place.
“The company was being completely irresponsible and thoughtless, and didn’t seem to think twice about the message the top was sending across to young people.”
“There is already enough pressure in magazines and TV shows to be as thin as possible, and I’m glad that clothing isn’t the next step,” she said.
What a hypocrite Ms Moss – if they shouldn’t print it, you shouldn’t say it and we shouldn’t buy the magazines, fashions etc that demand this of female children to be acceptable.
I’m confused, Vicki – what has made Kate Moss a hypocrite in this article?
Apart from that, I have heard that the quote concerned is a bit of a mantra on some ‘pro-ana’ sites.