TV ad for MYA cosmetic surgery banned for being irresponsible

AN ad for cosmetic surgery has been banned for being irresponsible and likely to cause harm to under 18-year-olds.

The television ad for MYA Cosmetic Surgery featured women discussing breast enhancement surgery and various insecurities they had about their bodies.

A viewer, who believed the ad exploited young women’s insecurities about their bodies, challenged whether it was irresponsible and harmful to those under 18.

MYA said viewers would be unlikely to interpret the ad as suggesting that breast enlargement surgery was the solution for body confidence issues.

They said they intentionally used patients who were over the age of 21, and looked over 25, to ensure the ad did not appeal to females under the age of 18.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ad indicated that cosmetic surgery was not a procedure that should be undertaken lightly, and was therefore not irresponsible on the grounds of trivialising such procedures.

However it said the ad disproportionately emphasised the women’s negative feelings and the impact they had had on them, and suggested that women who did not have a particular body type should not feel confident and comfortable with their bodies in public.

The ASA said: “We were therefore concerned that the ad might encourage viewers, particularly young women and teenage girls, to think about and dwell on their own insecurities with their bodies, and to question whether they too felt self-conscious about their bodies and whether they too felt comfortable wearing bikinis in public or wearing any clothes that they wanted.

“As such, we concluded that the ad was irresponsible and likely to cause harm to those under 18.”

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form, adding: “We told MYA Cosmetic Surgery not to advertise cosmetic surgery in an irresponsible and harmful way by focusing disproportionately on people’s negative perceptions of their bodies prior to cosmetic surgery.”