Love Island has become one of the most popular shows in the UK through featuring a cast of young singles looking for ‘love’ and romance in Majorca. Well, with these young singles come impressive physiques, well-done hair, and makeup applied to a professional level, and consequently research has found that 30% of millennial women think about going on a diet to lose weight after watching the reality TV series, 11% consider lip fillers, 8% consider breast enhancement surgery and 7% consider Botox.
However, what’s worse is that ITV has now started running ads during the breaks that take advantage of these thoughts, as for what these adverts are, one was for MYA Cosmetic Surgery – a company that offers loans for tummy tucks, breast enlargements and nose jobs – while another was for Skinny Sprinkles, a company that provides diet supplements which describes itself as a “gastric band in a glass.”
This, of course, caused a rather large backlash with people such as NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens saying “[ITV have to look] very carefully at the kinds of impacts that it is having.” In response to this kind of criticism Carolyn McCall, ITV’s chief executive, said: “There were a tiny number of ads where I would have thought the juxtaposition was not quite right,” adding “We are highly regulated on the ad side and we are totally compliant, my opinion is we sometimes need to be more sensitive. We have to be aware.”
