July 2, 2021: On Thursday, social platform Pinterest announced that they’re moving into a more healthy mindset. The platform will ban any and all advertisements related to weight loss in order to help curb any content that could possibly encourage unhealthy or disordered eating habits. In addition to the ban of weight loss ads, they will also prohibit ads with language or imagery that are aggressive or negative towards certain body types.
It’s a major move for a social platform to make a move like this. In 2019, both Instagram and Facebook put the kibosh ads for “miracle” diets and weight-loss products, but Pinterest is the first of the platforms to put a full and complete ban on these types of advertisements. They already banned ads featuring “before-and-after” images of weight loss, weight loss procedures, and harmful advertisements for appetite suppressants. Pinterest had a damaging history of pro-eating disorder content, or “thinspiration” / “thinspo” being a major search term on their site. They banned the terms back in 2012, but the content still found a way to be circumvented in the system. After seeing a spike in searches for healthy eating, healthy lifestyle and fitness tips over the past year, The National Eating Disorders Association worked with Pinterest in updating and creating their new policy.
“A lot of people are facing challenges related to body image and mental health, particularly as we’re emerging from COVID restrictions,” says Sarah Bromma, the company’s head of policy in a statement. “People are now feeling added pressure to rejoin their social circles in person for the first time in a year.”
The website will still feature ads promoting “healthy lifestyles”, as well as fitness services and products, as long as the main goal of the ad isn’t focusing on weight loss. This is a huge move for one of the most popular websites on the internet – here’s hoping there’s more to come, too.
