Cosmetic Surgery Ad Banned By ASA For Targeting Young Girls (PHOTOS, POLL)

We love to rant and rave about the excessively vigilant Advertising Standards Authority, the UK's ban-happy media watchdog. But we have to admit: we actually support the agency's latest move.

The Guardian reports that an advertisement for plastic surgery has been prohibited because it slyly targets young, impressionable girls.

The ad is made to look like a magazine cover with the word "COSMETIC" emblazoned across the top in neon print, looking nearly identical to another familiar phrase: "COSMOPOLITAN."

Below, written like magazine cover lines in pink and aqua, the ad promotes "BOOB JOBS" and "SAME DAY SURGERY" with the pithy tagline, "get more, pay less!"

Campaign reports that the clever poster, displayed at bus stops in London, was part of a new campaign by Spire Healthcare for a same-day plastic surgery service at one of its 37 private hospitals.

But it had not been approved by the necessary authorities -- and therefore got hit by the ASA.

According to the Guardian, the ASA received 10 formal complaints about the ad, which argued that it irresponsibly targeted young women and made light of cosmetic surgery. Thus the ASA's ruling that Spire's spot "conveyed the message that breast surgery was a straightforward, risk-free lifestyle decision" for young, impressionable girls.

While the ASA often gets unnecessarily strict about sexy photos or other debatably inappropriate ads, this one seems fairly unequivocal: made to look like a fun, lighthearted Cosmo cover, Spire's surgery spot is aimed right at teen girls who will embrace its bubbly headlines.

But that's just our take -- what do you think? Check out the ad below, plus a round-up of other ASA targets.

Quick Poll

Did Spire's plastic surgery ad deserve to be banned?

DEFINITELY. The magazine-like look is deceptive to teens.

NAH. It's just clever marketing, not truly dangerous to kids.

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[SukiTheCat]

12:20 PM on 12/08/2011

that's disturbing.

[daigz]

02:18 AM on 12/08/2011

The sad(der) thing is that the boobs on the girl they used as the model look pretty awful.. I'm sticking with mine, thanks.

[spkninglsh]

11:45 PM on 12/08/2011

Good for you. I vote for natural breasts of all shapes and sizes!

[Sid Monique]

07:38 PM on 12/09/2011

Seriously. Look at that Gap.

[archarabia]

09:35 PM on 12/07/2011

My take is that the demographic who pursue cosmetic surgery are usually those who need it least: young women in the prime of their youth who have been brainwashed that their perfect bodies need adjustment, only to regret it later.

[Christopher Koulouris]

06:08 PM on 12/07/2011

Yes, yes, I know you don’t even have breasts when you’re 16, well sort of. Of course who could fault you running down the street to your nearest plastic surgeon when you are after all being religiously groomed by the omnipresent ads, cover magazines and what passes for popular culture that if you’re a woman with breasts (which of course you most probably are…) then you too are a wanton sex object. Yes, women are sex objects. I know it offends me too, but this is what you get sometimes for de-sensitizing society and constantly portraying women as being valuable only when they look a particular way.

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/12/cosmetic-surgery-ad-banned-for-trivialising-surgery-and-for-potentially-portraying-women-as-sex-objects/

[Annika Vecchione]

05:49 PM on 12/07/2011

you should be glad with the boobs you got! i mean, i am happy about mine but they are on the bigger side and it is hard for me to run track at my high school. smaller girls should consider themselves lucky! Besides, the magazine's cover girl's "boobs" look like two separate balloons wanting to break free

[colin72]

05:34 PM on 12/07/2011

"PHOTOS: Does This Ad Deceive Teen Girls?"

Ad? How about "magazine".

[alahnar]

07:08 PM on 12/07/2011

It's an ad, not a magazine. Did you even read the article?

[colin72]

08:58 PM on 12/07/2011

I can not read.

[aphextwin07]

02:11 PM on 12/07/2011

see nothing wrong here really.

[Lex Anton]

01:45 PM on 12/07/2011

What ads don't deceive teenage girls? lol

[Mochilero]

12:50 PM on 12/07/2011

I used to enjoy the variety of gorgeous women on display in Playboy. but fifteen or so years ago, Hefner lost it and started showing a succession of fake, bulbous dyed blondes with horrifying makeup, identical navel piercings, and every one with a tattoo in the small of her back. I am no doubt lying if I claimed that I would kick any one of them out of bed, but YUCK on that look, and YUCK on the conformity.

[daBinsi]

12:48 PM on 12/07/2011

Eeeew her boobs look like ballons ready to burst! YIKES!

[Dede Eagleburger]

04:13 PM on 12/07/2011

I know, right? it's pretty easy to tell when they're not real..

[Bobbie Smithfield]

12:39 PM on 12/07/2011

i must admit that the ad made me think it was a cosmopolitan magazine cover.

[sensimilla]

11:28 AM on 12/07/2011

I'll be glad when "boob jobs" go completely out of style and everyone has them removed. I love women't breasts the way they are, large or small. And i love the women who keep them natural. This sends a sad message to young women, but hopefully they have enough sense in them to ignore it and be happy with themselves and their bodies.

[Craig Robert Smith]

01:22 PM on 12/07/2011

texture, shape, and nip smallness are more important than boob size to me.

[morenaclara325]

10:32 AM on 12/07/2011

This ad i s very magazine-ish, I think it all depends on the person who sees the ad. I would love for a company to put out an ad along the lines of "You are beautiful the way you are and don't need to be altered. If, however, at some point you feel that an alteration will make you feel better about yourself, we will be here to give you the best consultation for yourself and your health" Something like that is a little less in your face. Good luck with that, I know. And by the way, I see teens buying Cosmo all the time, and some of the girls will look at the sex tips with yheir friends while waiting in line at the store. Teens do more than you think.

[susanbsbi]

09:56 AM on 12/07/2011

Ads like these, show the girls that you have to have a skinny body and big boob. This is not good for girls who are trying to mature naturally into young women. Her in South Florida A Plastic Surgery office is full of patients ages 15 to 18, wanting boob, tummy tucks. What happen to the body we were born with. If it gets out os hape, exercise it back into shape. Peer Pressure is driving the girls to plastic surgery

[medulla oblongata]

12:16 PM on 12/07/2011

I see it more as this generation seems to have been raised on instant gratification, and so they don't have or don't want the mindset of having to actually work to have something, be it a car, an education or a better body.

[lefty81]

04:45 PM on 12/07/2011

I know that's right!!!

[daigz]

02:22 AM on 12/08/2011

That's really sad considering they still haven't finished growing. And doctors are okay with not disclosing that?

[Dede Eagleburger]

09:30 AM on 12/07/2011

i didn't see it as being aimed at teens either...teens dont read Cosmo...I am amzed that thye just put 'Boob Jobs' right out there in such big letters though, i mean, is that all theyre offering?

[eric14]

12:12 PM on 12/07/2011

Hello? It's a street ad.

[Dede Eagleburger]

12:19 PM on 12/07/2011

hello? i knew that...its made to look like a cosmo magazine though!!

[Gabilicious]

12:49 PM on 12/07/2011

I read Cosmo as a teen and so did many of my friends... however I don´t really see this ad as being targeted to teens either.