I really tried not to add to the slew of opinion pieces in retaliation to Kim Kardashian’s latest #ad on Instagram for appetite suppressant lollipops, I really did. Watching the Kardashian’s and stalking their social media empires is a guilty pleasure of mine as respite from my own relatively boring life, but when I waited on an apology from Kim for using her platform in a damaging way and saw none…I couldn’t help but question why this unethical promotion of harmful products by influencers (someone with influence on a digital platform) is still allowed to continue and why no one is accepting any responsibility for the impact they have on vulnerable people and their diets.
Kim and her sisters have done many paid posts for the company Flat Tummy Co, who are supplying these lollipops and who have had adverts banned in the UK due to their spouting of unreliable health claims. Their website boasts that the lollipops are around 35 calories (about the same as a regular lollipop…) and £1.30ish a pop (regular ones cost around 10p each), and they recommend that you “just have one whenever you start to feel hungry and it’ll help hold you over until your next meal!” It’s worth also noting that there is a disclaimer on their website, which says: “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.” The Kardashian’s have enough money to be able to source sound medical advice on the products that they promote, which leads me to the conclusion that they certainly have a choice when it comes to what they choose to advertise, and that money and controversial marketing techniques must be more important to them than the welfare of their easily manipulated following.
Diet products are nothing new, and are certainly not going anywhere since they provide a multi-million pound business to the world’s economy. Neither are the lengths influencers will go in order to go against simple moral standards for a pay check. Since Not Plant Based began, we have been calling out those with large followings online for shouting about health claims with no scientific backing, to which some have rebranded themselves in order to stay relevant – dropping the “clean eating” from their bios, for example. But what baffles me is their reluctance to apologise when they do something shitty. Everyone is allowed to make mistakes, but when the Kardashian’s have such a big team behind them and such power, it’s not good enough to just pass the blame onto someone else (think back to Kendall’s Pepsi scandal), or to blame the customer for interpreting their adverts in the wrong way.
Watching people you admire online promoting diet products which encourage you to “suppress your diet”, can make you mentally ill or worsen a mental illness you already have. I am saying this from experience. When I had an eating disorder, I would worship a few impossibly good looking women online, and Google “what does [insert name] eat in a day”. I would then mimic their diet plans exactly, not caring that I have a completely different body, lifestyle and bank balance to them. This obsession and disregard for what my own body needed, meant I was malnourishing my body and belittling even further the value of my self worth. I became very unwell. I know that had I still had a mental illness when I saw Kim’s lollipop advert a few days ago, I would’ve bought a 4-week supply, and I probably would’ve replaced my meals with them as a hopeful fast-track way to look like her. I am not a stupid person, but like everyone else, I am vulnerable to being manipulated through the internet.
So where does this end? Well, the reality is that it doesn’t look like unethical diet culture is going to end anytime soon, as Instagram doesn’t seem hugely concerned with removing such adverts if they are hashtagged in the appropriate way. It is therefore down to the individual to recognise the hold that they have over their audience and the harm that they are causing to vulnerable people’s mental health. Since Kim Kardashian – a woman with young children herself – doesn’t seem to care enough not to promote these products, it seems that we are all doomed to fuckery.