Watch an episode of Love Island and you will likely a) be gripped, b) look into flights to Mallorca and c) feel more tempted than before to get plastic surgery. On c), at least, so say the results of a poll that has found that female viewers aged between 18 and 34 are 11% more likely to consider getting lip fillers after watching the show. These viewers are 40% more likely to feel self-conscious about their body and appearance after watching and 30% have considered going on a diet to lose weight. It makes sense, then, that cosmetic surgery companies such as MYA and the diet supplement Skinny Sprinkles, which has been likened to a “gastric band in a glass”, have aired ads during Love Island breaks on ITV Hub.
The findings have led the feminist group Level Up, which commissioned the research, to start a campaign calling on ITV to drop the ads. “It really started as a personal thing,” says Level Up’s executive director Carys Afoko, who is a massive Love Island fan (“I’m sure some people think feminists shouldn’t watch Love Island. I’m not one of those people”). “You’re watching lots of very skinny women with perfect bodies and boobs.” Then come the ads. It is a potent mix.
Two of the three female members of Level Up, which launched at the start of the year with a mission to “build a community of people who are sick and tired of sexism in the UK and want to work together to do something about it”, admit to having Googled “lip fillers” or “tooth whitening” since watching the show. “I don’t think it’s just vulnerable young women,” says Afoko. “I think so many of us get these messages that we need to look skinnier or different … it just normalises it. When you air those adverts in the commercial breaks of a show like Love Island, which promotes a really narrow standard of beauty, you’re basically saying: ‘Look at these skinny women – here’s how you can be skinny. Here are women with fake boobs – here’s how you can get fake boobs.’”
Afoko used to be a communications director at SomeOfUs, an advocacy organisation that campaigns to hold big corporations accountable, but quit her job at the end of last year to launch Level Up, which built a community of 25,000 people in just six months. Her work in communications means Afoko is savvy about which campaigns the organisation can take on. Yesterday, it emerged that the Advertising Standards Agency will meet with NHS officials to discuss whether regulations are doing enough to protect young people from ads that fuel negative body image. One of Level Up’s campaigns looks at teaching consent in schools. In the next few months, they will develop online resources for people who have experienced harassment or sexual violence. They pick campaigns where they think they have a chance, broadly, of winning. “That’s why we’ve targeted this campaign at the adverts. It’s not the only problem with Love Island, but it does feel like a pretty small thing they could do to show that they’re listening to their viewers and they care about their wellbeing,” she says.
ITV says these ads have been broadcast only a few times, that there are no more scheduled and that it “takes its responsibility to viewers very seriously”. Afoko questions why ad space was not sold to any of the more innocuous companies that were surely queueing up for space on the hit show: “It just feels like they should put viewers’ mental health above their bottom line.”
She is asking the broadcaster to commit formally not to show surgery or diet ads in future series – and to “start to take viewers’ concerns and feedback about the show seriously”. In the longer term, she also wants to see more diversity on the show in general: “It doesn’t mean packing a house with a United Colours of Benetton cast. I think it does mean meeting with groups like us and starting to think: ‘What is the impact on young women watching the show?’”
