Self tan + extreme photoshopping = self esteem?
A heavily retouched Kelly Osbourne Avatar appeared in an ad for St Tropez spray tan, and has caused a controversy in the UK, according to The Daily Mail.
In the ads, the avatar claims: “(After St Tropez) I looked healthy, I looked like 10 pounds skinnier, and it started to make me look at my body in a different way.” She also did print ads (above) where she’s basically saying pale = low self esteem”
Now the Prince’s Trust – Prince Charles’ charity that assists disadvantaged young people – has pulled it’s endorsement of the product (It was endorsing a spray tan in the first place?) and the ad has caused an outcry among advocacy groups.
The Mail reports: “The concerns were raised by PinkStinks, a group set up by two mothers worried about the impact of marketing on girls. Abi Moore, who has two children under ten and set up the group with her twin Emma, said: ‘I was gobsmacked. Self-esteem should be about who you are and what you’ve achieved.
‘Telling impressionable young girls that having a spray tan and appearing on a reality TV show is the way to make yourself feel better is about as far off from my understanding of self-esteem as you can get.”
No argument with that. A totally unrecognisable, Photoshopped-beyond-recognition, Avatar of the offspring of a rock star who has no real claim to fame of her own, is a poor role model.
Kelly Osbourne’s fame comes from the usual 21st century surces: accident of birth + reality shows + appearances in the gossip columns.
No woander she has poor self-esteem.
Miss Osbourne was approached by St Tropez while on the U.S. reality show Dancing With The Stars.
“She said in the video, which has now been removed from the St Tropez website: ‘Everybody [on the show] has to get a spray tan. I was really against it at first. It was against everything I believed in.
‘Then I realised how ignorant I was being. They put a fluorescent pink and orange dress on me and I looked like Miss Piggy.”
The Pinkstinks sisters must be pleased with the result of their capmpaign. St Tropez has been roundly punished: The Princes Trust has withdrawn it’s support of St Tropez, which continues to be a corporate donor and continues to donate £10 out of every £45 (the price of a bottle of St Tropez) to the Trust.
But of course, Kelly Osbourne continues in her role as patron of the trust and no doubt did not hand her fee back to the company,
Or donate it to charity.
The ad has been withrawn.
Update: According to reports, The Prince’s trust has dropped Kelly Osbourne as a result of the ad.
