The Harmful Effects Behind Weight Loss Ads
By Skye Byrne
Script
Intro
In today’s society, beauty standards are extremely harmful to both men and women, as they create pressure to conform to a certain physical appearance and can lead to low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction. I believe that it is important to recognize and challenge these harmful beauty standards and promote body positivity and self-love.
Body
For this assignment, I chose to focus on the company Bloom Nutrition which has been getting a lot of traction because they have been hiring influencers on Tik Tok to promote their “de-bloating” greens supplement. TikTok videos tagged #bloompartner have been viewed one billion times. Bloom claims that Greens is made with “30+ nutrients, including organic fruits and vegetables, probiotics, antioxidants, and more.” But as some dietitians who have reviewed the supplement facts label on TikTok have noted, Bloom’s use of proprietary blends makes it impossible for consumers to know exactly how much of each ingredient is in the product.
In this Tiktok ad I found, it claims by drinking Bloom Nutrition you will have a six-pack like the girl who is shown drinking and promoting the product. However, there is much more that goes into losing weight rather than drinking your greens. I believe this ad is evoking emotion by addressing consumers’ fear of gaining weight. The caption states, “You better be drinking your greens”, which makes you feel compelled to buy this product. This can also lead to weight loss practices, such as fad diets or extreme calorie restriction, which can have negative effects on health and well-being. These ads encourage people to pursue quick fixes or shortcuts to weight loss, rather than focusing on sustainable and healthy lifestyle changes.
There are also thousands of other Tiktok influencers that promote this product after naturally being skinny which displays false advertising. For example, one of the most influential Tiktokers at the moment Alix Earle is known for her beautiful looks. She is always sponsoring and featuring Bloom on her account of almost 5 million followers. In this Tiktok she gives a before and after of taking Bloom and how she thinks she was less bloated when in reality she is naturally very skinny. I think this is extremely misleading and can promote unhealthy or dangerous behaviors. I know many people that have also been influenced to purchase this product and they say that it doesn’t have the same effect that everyone is advertising.
Another piece of propaganda I found was from the Bloom Nutrition Instagram. This post included a tweet from a Twitter user who claimed that this product is counteracting their unhealthy diet. By posting this, Bloom is appealing to their audience who likely eats fast food, just like the user who posted this. This is making their product feel relatable and that it can be used by people just like them. However this is harmful because it is appealing to the needs of the viewers to “debloat” and fit in with society’s standards. It is also making them believe that if this product works for some, it will be a miracle product for them as well. This propaganda is harmful for the users who feel like they can use this product and magically change how they feel and look.
Conclusion
Overall, advertisements that promote harmful beauty standards contribute to a culture of body shaming and discrimination, perpetuating the notion that physical appearance is the most important aspect of an individual’s identity. It’s important for companies to consider the potential impact of their advertisements and to promote inclusive and diverse representations of beauty.
Reflection
Beauty standards in society can be harmful in many ways, including promoting unrealistic expectations of physical appearance and contributing to negative body image and low self-esteem. My purpose for this assignment was to express the dangerous and negative effects of weight loss advertisements. Advertisements that imply that certain products or supplements are necessary to achieve a particular standard of beauty can be misleading and can promote unhealthy or dangerous behaviors. I chose to focus on the company Bloom Nutrition which has been getting a lot of traction because they have been hiring influencers on Tik Tok to promote their “de-bloating” greens supplement.
For this assignment, I found an ad on Tiktok claiming that by drinking Bloom Nutrition you will have a six-pack like the girl who is shown drinking and promoting the product. I believe this is harmful because there is much more that goes into losing weight rather than drinking your greens. I could argue that this is appealing to the audience’s needs since people are fixated on having the perfect body type, yet I believe this ad is evoking emotion by addressing consumers’ fear of gaining weight. The caption states, “You better be drinking your greens”, which makes you feel compelled to buy this product. I thought that this piece of propaganda was extremely compelling and worked well with the topic I wanted to focus on.
I thought it was important to include a quote I found from TINA.org that states, “Bloom claims that Greens is made with 30+ nutrients, including organic fruits and vegetables, probiotics, antioxidants, and more. But as some dietitians who have reviewed the supplement facts label on TikTok have noted, Bloom’s use of proprietary blends makes it impossible for consumers to know exactly how much of each ingredient is in the product.” As we learned in our modules, lies can be attention-getting. According to Hobbs, “such obvious lies grab people’s attention because they are a brazen display of power, and they break through the clutter of everyday life”. In this case, Bloom lied about their greens in order to gain popularity and people’s attention. I think it is extremely important for companies to be transparent with their customers especially if they are promoting weight loss. A quote from Peter Pomerantsev’s To Unreality — and Beyond states, “At the moment we have no way of understanding whether what one sees online is organic or part of a campaign, a human or a bot; who has created certain pieces of content and to what end; why an algorithm shows us one piece of content over another; which bits of our own data are being used to target us with certain messages.” This absence of transparency is a type of censorship in and of itself, preventing citizens from engaging in their information environment on an equal basis. People who purchase Bloom should know what is in it and the effects before the company makes them believe it is magic in a bottle.
There are also thousands of other Tiktok influencers that promote this product after naturally being skinny which displays false advertising. For example, I wanted to include the famous Tiktoker Alix Earle who has gone viral for being beautiful and naturally skinny. She is always promoting Bloom Nutrition and I thought it would be perfect to showcase her “before” and “after” of taking the greens. She claims that she looks much less bloated, however, she is just naturally very skinny and I thought that this was extremely misleading. There are so many young girls that watch her videos and desire to achieve her looks, however, drinking Bloom Nutrition is not going to make them look the way she does. I also wanted to include another piece of propaganda I found on Bloom Nutrition’s Instagram page. They posted a picture titled, “really leaning on this bloom superfoods and greens to counteract the years and years of mcchickens”. By posting this, Bloom is appealing to their audience who likely eats fast food and tries to make their product feel relatable and that it can be used by people just like them. However, I thought that this was extremely harmful propaganda because it is appealing to the needs of the viewers to “debloat” and fit in with society’s standards. It is extremely harmful for the users who feel like they can use this product and magically change how they feel and look.
Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment and delving deeper into harmful propaganda. Before this course, I was unaware of how propaganda is all around us and comes in many forms. I believe that it is extremely important to recognize and challenge these harmful beauty standards and promote body positivity and self-love. Weight loss advertisements are harmful because they promote unattainable body standards, perpetuate a society of body shaming and discrimination, and encourage unhealthy or harmful weight loss practices. Companies must consider the possible impact of their advertisements and promote healthy and inclusive images of beauty and body positivity.
Works Cited
“Bloom Nutrition Greens & Superfoods Powder.” Truth in Advertising, 21 Feb. 2023, https://truthinadvertising.org/articles/bloom-nutrition-greens-superfoods-powder/.
Hobbs, Renee. Mind over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.
Pomerantsev, P. (2019). To Unreality — and Beyond. Journal of Design and Science, (6)
