We live in a world where the advertisement has a lot of influence over people’s minds, and they just believe what is being shown to them. It has some good effects as well as some bad effects. Pinterest, a popular online bulletin board, had recently banned some ads which promote weight loss. They are calling it a move against body shaming and clearly protecting mental health on an online platform. The online bulletin board said that it would not allow ads containing content on how to lose weight.
“Across the country, people of all ages face physical image and mental health challenges, especially as they get out of the COVID19 pandemic,” Pinterest said in a post. So they are promoting the users to plan their summers without weight-losing ads and focus on what’s more important to them. Pinterest claims to be the first major online platform to ban all weight-loss ads and said it was an extension of the guidelines banning body shaming in ads. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) in the United States has praised Pinterest’s move. By taking this necessary step, NEDA is encouraged to prioritize the mental health and wellbeing of pinners, especially those affected by nutritional culture, shame a body, and eating disorders,” the association’s executive director Elizabeth Thompson said in a statement. We hope this global policy will encourage other organizations and companies to think about harmful advertising messages and create their own workplace guidelines that will make significant changes.
Pinterest previously promoted weight loss pills and practices such as liposuction banned along with images or language that mock body types. San Francisco-based Pinterest reported in April that the number of people using it each month worldwide rose to more than 478 million in the first quarter of this year. Pinterest, introduced in 2010, is a virtual bulletin board platform where users decorate their bulletin boards with images that show interests such as food, fashion, travel, and lifestyle.
