Orbach has accused Ultimo, Mrs Mone’s lingerie brand, of reinforcing negative body images, and claimed that repeated use of celebrity models who have had breast augmentation surgery contributes to “the intensity of perfected images … which add up to a sense that our bodies need to be transformed”.
Ultimo’s campaigns for its D-to-G cup collections have been fronted by former Hollyoaks actress and I’m a Celebrity star Gemma Atkinson, and page-three girl turned TV presenter Melinda Messenger, with Ms Messenger the current face of the D-to-G range for the online store. Both have spoken publicly about their breast enlargement surgery.
Ms Orbach -- convenor of AnyBody, a UK group set up to challenge “unrealistic standards of beauty” -- is also co-originator of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. The psychotherapist, who helped Lady Diana with her eating disorders, is also the celebrated author of the seminal book Fat is a Feminist Issue.
“I have plenty of clinical evidence to show that surgically enhanced models create a situation in which young women and girls feel inadequate,” Ms Orbach said. “They begin to think about how they can get their breasts to look like the ones that they see on ads. They feel dispirited because even though they know these images don’t necessarily relate to ‘natural’ bodies, they appear to be the norm and they feel left out.”
In response, Mrs Mone, founder of MJM International, whose Ultimo brand helped her earn the Scottish Fashion Awards’ Retailer of the Year accolade and an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List, said: “As a brand we’re very open minded and we would never discriminate against women who’ve had surgery.
“All of our models are employed for their personality and what they bring to the brand, so whether they have enhanced breasts or not is totally irrelevant.”
But questions about the ethics of advertising are taking on a political dimension. Last December, an ad for an Olay beauty product featuring Twiggy’s re-touched image was banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), who described it as “misleading”.
The ruling followed more than 700 complaints gathered by the LibDem MP for East Dunbartonshire, Jo Swinson, who launched the party’s Real Women policy paper, which proposes the banning of airbrushed images in adverts aimed at under-16s, and the introduction of labelling to inform consumers of all ages when airbrushed images are being used.
In November, Mrs Mone spoke out against what she called “dangerous airbrushing”, revealing her 10-year-old daughter had caused her concern after making comments about her own size.
Mrs Mone said: “I’ve put my foot down. If Ultimo are in charge of images, taking off the weight will not get done. I’m a mother and I don’t believe we should be changing how people look.
“Young girls should not feel the need to measure up to unobtainable images.”
But Mrs Mone previously embarked on a campaign using the infamously enhanced celebrity, Katie Price aka Jordan, to model her Young Attitude lingerie brand in 2005 before personal differences meant the working relationship lasted only a few hours.
Weighing into the debate, Ms Swinson told the Sunday Herald: “Opinion polls consistently tell us that women want to see more realistic models in advertisements, with a wider variety of sizes and shapes, recognising that beauty goes beyond the very narrow ideal currently presented by the media.
“It is worrying if women feel pressured into cosmetic surgery. Advertisers who want to demonstrate responsibility and also appeal to the vast majority of women will ensure they use a wide range of models in their images -- beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.”
But Mrs Mone said: “We always aim to be representative of the UK’s female population, which is why we’ve had women of all shapes and sizes front our campaigns, including women with enhanced breasts as well as women who have smaller breasts.
“You just need to take a look at the statistics to see that more and more women across the UK are having breast augmentation, so it would be short-sighted for any brand to rule out using augmented models.”
