Morning Update: London Mayor bans negative body image ads; Apple opens apps; What next for Gawker?; Smirnoff launches cider
BBC: London mayor plans negative body image advert ban on Tube, buses and trains
Adverts promoting negative body images will be banned across the Transport for London (TfL) network from next month. As part of his mayoral election manifesto Sadiq Khan pledged to ban adverts promoting “unhealthy or unrealistic” body images.
The advertising watchdog received 378 complaints in 2015 about a weight-loss advert that asked customers if they were “beach body ready?”Mr Khan has now asked TfL to set up its own advertising steering group.
The Verge: Apple opens up
So the new Mayor of London who is a Muslim plans to ban ads of ‘negative body image’ on public transport…What’s next? A ban on ads for products portraying in-humane treatment of pigs? i.e. Bacon. I can appreciate the impact of advertising on those who are more body-conscious, but this looks suspiciously like a way of impressing conservative religious beliefs on a free and liberal society in order to sure-up votes. Is it that you don’t want to promote negative body image? Or you just don’t like seeing women’s bodies in your face on your way to work? Here comes the new rule London. Good luck with that.