Pinterest bans weight loss ads in first for major social networks

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jul/02/bye-bye-bmi-pinterest-bans-weight-loss-ads-in-first-for-major-social-networks

by prawn • 5 years ago

64 42 5 years ago

theguardian.com

tolbish• 5 years ago

Sarah Bromma, Pinterest’s head of policy, said in an interview that the rule change prioritised Pinterest users’ “emotional and mental health and wellbeing, especially those directly impacted by eating disorders or diet culture or body shaming”.

This must mean they will be banning all makeup ads too, right? Think about how obsessive people can get over editing and filtering their photos and even more harmful practices like cheek or lip injections.

vkou4• 5 years ago

It's entirely possible to draw an arbitrary line, right through a gray area.

For instance, tobacco products are illegal to sell to someone under the age of 21. It's not because people magically become responsible on their 21st birthday, it's an arbitrary line drawn in a way to balance personal freedom, public welfare, and the need for cigarette manufacturers to make billions of dollars.

As an outside observer looking in, online ads for weight loss products seem to be 70% scummy, 25% outright fraudulent, with maybe 5% of them selling something of value. I don't believe beauty and fashion products have a similar ratio.

unishark4• 5 years ago

Arbitrary also means wide open to corruption. I imagine there is a lot of money to be made in influencing Pinterest management in their arbitrary decisions now.

rprwhite• 5 years ago

This is a bit of a false dichotomy. A choice can be made to remove something, seen to be, having a negative impact on people without having to remove everything that is seen to have such an impact. One step in the right direction is still a step in the right direction.

tinalumfoil• 5 years ago

Heart disease killed twice the people as COVID in 2020, I really doubt helping people feel okay being fat is "the right direction".

https://cdn.jamanetwork.com/ama/content_public/journal/jama/...

patrick451• 5 years ago

Sarah Bromma, Pinterest’s head of policy, said in an interview that the rule change prioritised Pinterest users’ “emotional and mental health and wellbeing, especially those directly impacted by eating disorders or diet culture or body shaming”

What about their physical well being? Morbid Obesity is no joke.

vkou4• 5 years ago

It's no joke, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be cured by "one weird old trick Discovered By <zipcode> mom that doctor's don't want you to know about".

Which is what a large fraction of the advertising in this space looks like to me.

fake-name• 5 years ago

Random people or ads telling fat people they should feel bad and go on a diet does not work.

chroem-2• 5 years ago

Do you have data to back that up, or is it conjecture?

yanderekko• 5 years ago

Then why are people paying to run these ads to begin with?

onion2k2• 5 years ago

Pinterest isn't condoning morbid obesity. They're stopping adverts for things that are pretty much always a scam.

Besides, unregulated weight loss pills bought over the internet aren't a solution for weight loss. For a start you have no idea what's in them. They can range from ineffective fake medicine to actively harmful and dangerous amphetamines. If someone wants to lose weight there are better, safer ways to go about it. Banning adverts is a good start to prompting people to seek better solutions.

Godel_unicode• 5 years ago

If that's the case, why don't they say that? There are a lot of words in this which are lifted from the fat-acceptance movement talking points.

You'll note, as mentioned in tfa, that things like weight-loss pills and before/after imagery were already against the site's policy.

unishark4• 5 years ago

I would think it's more the fact that targeting diet ads to obese people is just creepy and obnoxious, because pretty much all ad targeting tends to be creepy and obnoxious.

Though I agree with others that their statement was kind of overly-political. Are they going to ban skinny models from all ads next?

throwkeep• 5 years ago

If they ban Coca Cola ads, we'll know they are serious.

anigbrowl• 5 years ago

It isn't, but I don't think weight loss advertising is necessarily the answer to that.

watwut2• 5 years ago

Weight loss adds dont lead to weight loss. They dont improve anyone physical well being.

Normille2• 5 years ago

  >...users' emotional and mental health and wellbeing

What about the emotional health and wellbeing of internet users who have to put up with Pinterest's '6 million domains and counting, so you'll never be able to block them all -Ha! Ha!' pollution of our search results.

amanaplanacanal• 5 years ago

Your search engine should be fixing that problem. It’s what they do. Or at least what they used to do. Google seems way more interested in serving up ads than good search results nowadays.

mrweasel• 5 years ago

While I like the idea, I don’t think Pinterest fully understand what they’ve done. They now has to defend every ad on the site. Everyone has a valid reason as to why some ad should be banned.

awb• 5 years ago

Surely they’ve rejected ads before this.

legulere• 5 years ago

Most ads are scams, as they sell you an image of something you cannot reach with the product. Cigarettes don’t turn you into a cool Cowboy. Just banning the worst offenders is not enough.

necovek• 5 years ago

Does anyone know what footprint does Pinterest have in the "social" sphere (considering the title calls it a "major social network")?

I always thought it was just a scam to get people into their walled garden by overtaking every conceivable Google image search (to the point that "-site:pinterest.com" is my default when looking for images). I just can't imagine who are the actual users and what they get out of it?

trabant00• 5 years ago

While I dislike concepts like "body shaming", and don't believe obesity is due to "body type", I fully agree with the decision. Weight loss products are ALWAYS a scam and with the false hopes provided actually prevent the users from searching a working, healthy and long term solution.

And I could go further than that: the entire internet fitness industry is a scam. I know it's a strong claim and I don't offer proof but the discussion is huge. "Unrealistic body standards" is a real thing - "influencers" are using steroids, plastic surgery, makeup, lighting, photoshop, dehydration, etc, while selling weight gainers, weight loss pills, horrible workout programs, etc.

Source: my personal experience. I'm in my 40s, maintain six pack with enough strength to do handstand pushups and have done so for years.

tootahe45• 5 years ago

Pinterest and 'major social network' in the same title..

How about no.

potatosalad1• 5 years ago

Guessing you aren't female? Pinterest is huuuuge with women in their 30s and later (not sure about the younger ones)

literallyaduck• 5 years ago

They show lots of desserts, it seems like the tobacco companies banning advertising for the nicotine patch on their cigarettes TV channel.

atatatat• 5 years ago

Protecting your market.

Just like Walmart selling cheaper diabetes meds.

Pinterest bans weight loss ads in first for major social networks

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