An interactive transit shelter ad for the National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC) is an interesting blend of outdoor and print media. But social commentary, not media integration, drives the campaign by Toronto agency Zulu Alpha Kilo.
The transit ad in downtown Toronto shows a pile of fashion mags behind a glass cover, with a slot for passersby to deposit their own magazines. Copy says “Shed your weight problem here,” above the line “Recent studies confirm reading beauty magazines makes us feel fat.”
It is the only consumer-facing element of a campaign targeting beauty and fashion publications, urging them to “cast [models] responsibly” and “retouch minimally” with photo editing software in an effort to change issues of weight perception.
“They felt it was time to send this to the industry,” said Zak Mroueh, founder and creative director at Zulu. “From what I can tell no one’s ever targeted the industry so directly. We’re trying to create a movement to get the industry to change its perceptions of how it does things.”
Several companies (though Mroueh would not name the “offenders”) were sent direct mail greeting cards that said “Thanks for making me such a successful anorexic” and very narrow-waisted shirts that said “I’m a size negative 8.” A tag on the shirt reads “Please try this on to experience how your ads make us feel.”
All executions point to Nedic.ca, where consumers can sign a petition that urges “fashion leaders and marketers” to “broaden their definition of beauty and inspire us with looks that are beautiful and attainable.”
The fashion leaders themselves are also invited to the site to sign a pledge to the same effect.
“We want to start a dialogue with them,” Mroueh said. “If they sign the pledge, fantastic. If they don’t, it tells us there’s a real problem we need to deal with.”
Zulu will continue working on the pro bono account with events and additional executions planned for March and media outreach taking place in the near future.
