I Finally Did Something About the Weight Loss Ads on Facebook
April 5, 2008
Update 8/3/08: If you’re interested in contributing to this effort by creating your own ad campaign, you can get some tips here
I’ve been complaining for months now about all the weight loss ads that have popped up on Facebook ever since they instituted self-serve advertising. I finally decided to shut the hell up and actually do something about it.
I bought an ad:
If you click it, it takes you to the Love Your Body Day website. I’m going to run the ad through April 7. I’ve set the maximum daily budget to the minimum of $5.00. I targeted it to single women between 18 and 30. I pirated the image of the Reubenesque Barbie doll from the Body Shop’s campaign in the late 90’s. Today, the ad had 12 clicks and 6,590 impressions.
I sincerely hope that it reached even a few women and that fewer people clicked on asinine ads like these:
If you like this idea, why not try it yourself. It’s relatively easy to set up an ad to run for a few days, you don’t need to spend more than $5.00 a day and you can reach thousands of people. If even a few people do this, we can reach a wider audience with the message that we’re all tired of seeing ads on Facebook that try to make us insecure about our bodies.
props..how do i vote this up
?
Nice… For myself, I lothe the ads flashing tities at me all the time telling me that some one out there is interested in me, like there would be these 18 year old nymphomaniacs just waiting to meet some lowly freaking gardener. Myspace is many times worse, with a constant bombardment of supermodels with a keen interest in my poor, non boat owning, ass. Seriously, what have we come too in this once great nation. We say we are fighting a war on terror, but in many ways aggressive advertising is causing more universal harm than a bomb jacket ever could.
I love this!
Subversive + fun + intelligent.
What were the final numbers on clicks + impressions?
Jennifer: Thanks! The final tally was 32,534 impressions and 44 click throughs.
This is the second ad in the series. I’ve set it to run for 4 days to the same audience.
Thanks for doing this, Teresa. I’m miffed at not only the weight loss ads, but also how Facebook seems to target people by different age groups, gender and other generalities. For instance, if you’re over 40, you’d be annoyed daily by seeing Facebook ads about hair loss, eliminating “middle-age tummy fat,” reconstructive surgery, skin moisteners, jobs for people over 50 and other cliches, none of which may apply to me, so why am I subject to having to see them every day? This is advertising without any consciousness at all about how prospective customers might be perceiving these companies.
Good for you—I fully support your effort!
Another really awful ad and my response:
Love it!
Thanks for spending time (and money) on this very important issue. It reminds me of something my mother used to say when I dated someone who was on the plus side: The more she has, the more there is to love.
[...] advertising on Facebook, get as specific as you can. Avoid stereotyping your potential customers, all women are not interested in weight loss. Many men are not interested in having sex thrown at them all day [...]
[...] friend Katt sent me a message on Facebook about something awesome Teresa Valdez Klein did. Fed up with ads like [...]
[...] really annoyed with these lose weight ads that shows up every 2 pages on Facebook. Teresacenric decided to publish her own counter ads. Now I am getting all sorts of evil [...]
WOW - you go girl. I get sick to the back teeth of people assuming that because I am female all I think about all day long is being skinny and having babies! I might be considered chubby but I dont want to loose weight. I might well be good with children but I dont want to have babies. In the same way that being tall doesn’t make me want to be a basket ball player and being good at sewing doesn’t make me a dress maker!
Hats off to you…inspired response to the very lucrative problem of self hatered!
Wow, this is really incredible. I didn’t know you could do something like that for just $5 dollars!
This is fantastic!
You might also want to mix up where the ads are pointing to. For instance http://kateharding.net/but-dont-you-realize-fat-is-unhealthy/ (which debunks the “OMG FAT WILL KILL” ) might be nice.
I *LOVE*this! Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou!!
I’m all over the 40 and single ones!!!!
Brilliant idea, props for doing this! I hope you’ve opened some gals’ eyes!
Wow you guys! I’m glad this issue has got so many people galvanized. I think we should actually launch some kind of a coordinated campaign using Facebook’s self-serve ads. I’m going to think on it a bit today and maybe reach out to the gals at Feministing for ideas.
[...] what she said when she started running the ads in April: If you click it, it takes you to the Love Your Body Day website. I’m [...]
Think about reaching out to the folks at fatshionista for ideas and support.
Is there a way that I could access these ads? How can I find them on facebook? How can I put them up?
Oh and YOU R TEH AWESOME.
Your ad (the one that changed ‘Wow. That is Gross.’ into ‘This is a Healthy Body’) popped into my facebook the other day and it put a huge smile on my face. Your efforts are reaching people! (I saw the ad before I read about this issue on feministing, which led me to some google searching).
It was so jarringly different than the weight loss ad I was expecting. My facebook ad space is bursting with those types of images (I am apparently directly in that target demographic). Sadly, I realized that I had memorized many of the ads; I could think about them almost instantly when I paused for reflection.
Thank you so much for drawing attention to this issue! My gender is no longer specified on Facebook; I will keep my eye out for how the ads change.
Good work. I’m pleased to see someone standing up against the beauty myth.
You should see the surgery programs over here in the UK. They’re messed up!!!
Thank you so much for doing this. Totally brilliant!
I think it is a great idea, Im not sure about the age range though. just 18-30???? as we get older we tend to gain more weight!
Wow, wonderful idea! Did you know that engaged women get those ads too? In the form of “you should lose those 10 pounds in 10 days before your wedding!!!!”. Gross. Let us know how we can use your images and put those ads on Facebook again.
In addition to the awesome ones you already have, you should make one that is a counter to the “skinny bride diet” ones that go for engaged women. Keep doing these ads, they’re great!
Thanks for fighting back. I LOVE your ads! They are clever and well-done! I get these demeaning weight-loss ads every time I log onto Facebook and I’m sick of it.
Well, after 30 we get ads saying ‘Fat at 31?’ and others entitled ‘Trouble conceiving?’ with pictures of cute babies and general baby paraphernalia. Now maybe they’re just using the blunt instrument of knowing my age, but I notice these always come just after I’ve commented or sent a message containing words such as ‘baby’ ‘birth’, ‘maternity leave’ etc to a friend who has just had a baby or announced a pregnancy…. Not only is it horribly offensive just as it is, but if I were having trouble conceiving, does anyone really think I’d go to an ad on Facebook for help?
[...] been a really powerful reaction to the ad campaign I ran a few months [...]
It is so great to see this - The first time I saw the “wow. that is gross” ad on Facebook I immediately emailed their complaint department - and did again several more times, and never got a reply. Most of my friends thought I was being too radical /feminazi and told me to let it go. But I work with young teenage girls at an after school program, and I see firsthand how this sort of advertising is affecting youth. Thank you so much for your time and money put into this!!!
Love the idea! But how about we put HALF NAKED MEN! Seriously, we deserve it. I’m sick of seeing women, I want some eye candy!
I’ve been doing an experiment on how many advertisements a day for weight loss products I see. So far, today, I’ve seen 19, on television and on the web. This constant mental bombardment cannot be good for people. It’s to the point of being mind control. I’m an average sized woman who doesn’t hate her body, and I try to tell people that there is no reason why they should hate themselves, either.
Every day that I go out on errands, I see women who look so thin that they look sickly. It’s almost like hip bones are “the new tits.” I get dirty looks from anorexic women all of the time, and I just don’t understand it. I think women are being seriously brainwashed and something has to be done about it.
It’s almost as if there is a conspiracy against women. I’ve noticed all of the advertisements that tell women to eat only yogurt, salad, and diet foods. Notice you rarely ever see a woman eating anything on TV that has meat in it? It’s just as bad as cleaning product spots that show only women doing housework.
Women need to fight back. There is a horrible backlash going on against us. It’s real, and it’s seriously destructive.
Hey! thank you so much for this! I’m 21 and i’ve noticed this on facebook a lot, (i even changed my status to ‘…is fed up with being told to lose weight.. Facebook clearly thinks she’s fat.
I’m a 10/12 and i’m happy with my body. But having it thrown in my face to lose weight all the time does make me entertain the thought briefly from time to time.
WELL DONE AND THANK YOU!!!!
x
Thank God for the ads. My wife, who was overweight at Chistmas has now lost 25 pounds. You see she was overweight and a leading cause for diabetes. She found out she is diabetic just before Thanksgiving. If you are overweight - today - chances are you may be diabetic in the future.
So wake up America - Obesity is not a beautiful thing - specially if you are diabetic. Do not be afraide to look and the mirror and decide to do something about it. Or did you see the new McDonalds commercial on TV. Drive to McDonalds for some comfort food the choice is totally your
Paul: It’s one thing to lose weight for health reasons - but that’s something a woman’s doctor needs to tell her, not an advertisement. Ads are there to get people to buy products and make money for the weight loss industry - not to tell people about their health.
There’s a big difference between being obese and simply not having a body that looks like a starving ten year-old boy’s.
That’s a wonderful sentiment, Teresa, and I wholeheartedly agree that people need to love themselvevs exactly as they are. I truly do because that was KEY in my own weight loss.
However the sad truth is, we DO tell people about their health and it isn’t enough. We DO tell people that the fat fast food that we eat is slowly killing us. The news has stories on the fate of our nation’s health constantly, and yet we continue to grow. It frightens me!
As someone who has taken personal control of my health, I’m all for WHATEVER it takes for someone to get healthy…as long as it is honest. I applaud you for your efforts, but you do have to also have to be realistic. Before and after pictures sell, fear sells, etc. It’s just human nature.