Ad Banned For Normalising Lip Fillers For Young People

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) suggest that the ad insinuated that getting lip fillers are now "as commonplace as getting your hair done”.

The advert, which ran in Index Magazine, targeted young women and has been removed for normalising and presenting the cosmetic procedure as safe.

The ad showed three young women looking at a magazine together alongside the caption: “We understand, it's concerning, but Dermal fillers are very quickly becoming as commonplace as getting your hair done these days and even more so within the younger age group.”

Raising three daughters myself this story caught my attention immediately. I think it is irresponsible and shocking that there would be any such ad for cosmetic procedures involving young women. Let alone normalising such treatments again for young and vulnerable girls.

Cosmetic procedures of any sort should never be normalised. Nor should our children ever be made to feel that altering your body or face in any shape or form for cosmetic reasons is common or worse again, normal.

What we should be doing is campaigning for adverts displaying what “normal” really looks like. Loving our features and our bodies the way they are.

Derma fillers are becoming ever popular and we don’t know the long term effects of these procedures. Not definitively. We don’t know what physical effects they may have on our bodies or the mental effect they will have on impressionable young girls.

RTWSkin director John Sheffield doesn’t seem to feel the same. He defended the advert, claiming that “many” young people visited the clinic for a free consultation and advice on dermal filler procedures as a result of the ad, and about 30 percent of these people went for treatment.

"In the vast majority of cases, we were able to satisfy the person that they did not need this procedure. We marked that down as a success," he claimed.

"We have received several commendations for our efforts to educate and were really quite shocked at the attitude and conclusions of the ASA."

Jackie Doyle-Price, the mental health minister, added: “No procedure is without risk.  Anyone considering a cosmetic procedure needs to satisfy themselves that they understand those risks.

"I expect providers of cosmetic intervention to act responsibly when advertising, and ensure they are screening consumers to identify whether there are any underlying mental health issues or unhealthy motivations driving them to seek cosmetic procedures.

"Children should not be having these procedures done let alone be targeted.  If I have to take additional powers to protect children then I will."

Index Magazine has said that they will no longer run it in the print edition, as well as removing it from their online edition.