Protein World's 'beach body ready' ad backfired — then its CEO called feminists terrorists

In April 2015, the supplement brand Protein World put up posters across the London Underground showing a bikini-clad model under the question 'Are you beach body ready?', promoting its weight-loss products. Within days the campaign had become a national argument. Almost 60,000 people signed a petition calling for the ads to be taken down, a 'taking back the beach' protest was organised in Hyde Park, and the posters were defaced. Critics said the ad objectified women and promoted an unhealthy body image.

Britain's advertising regulator, the ASA, received 378 complaints. It first said the ad could not run again in its current form, citing concerns about its health and weight-loss claims, and opened an investigation into whether it was harmful or offensive. In July it ruled that the ad was not, in fact, offensive or irresponsible — a decision the eating-disorders charity Beat called 'extremely disappointing.' The regulator cleared the ad; the public had not.

Protein World's response made the story bigger. The company, which said it had received death threats, was unrepentant: its chief executive, Arjun Seth, likened feminists to 'terrorists,' and its head of marketing said it was 'great' that a controversial columnist had weighed in. The brand had turned a complaint about an ad into a fight with its critics. The ad never returned to the Underground in the same form, and 'beach body ready' became a shorthand for advertising that mistakes provocation for relevance.